PBS Names The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg as Host of ‘Washington Week’

PBS’ Washington Week has found its next moderator.

The company’s NewsHour division announced Wednesday that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, will be the host of the 30-minute Friday news program. The magazine will also join as a producer of the show, which will be renamed Washington Week With The Atlantic. Goldberg’s first show will be on Aug. 11.

“We are delighted to be working with The Atlantic and Jeffrey Goldberg, whose depth, intellect and, yes, wit, are such ideal fits for this program and its next chapter,” Sara Just, the program’s senior executive producer, said in a statement. “Together, I am confident we will bring the most insightful conversations about today’s many urgent news stories that can be found on television and online.”

The show will name the panelists for Goldberg’s first show next week, a PBS NewsHour spokesperson said.

Goldberg will remain The Atlantic’s top editor alongside his new post. He follows NBC News reporter Yamiche Alcindor, who left the post in February; CBS News reporter Robert Costa; and PBS NewsHour anchor Gwen Ifill, the program’s first woman anchor who died in 2016.

“Washington Week holds a special and rare place on television, to have a space for civil and extended conversation about the issues affecting the news and our world,” Goldberg said in a statement. “Gwen built this show into an institution, continued by Robert and by Yamiche, and I’m honored to carry on this tradition as The Atlantic embarks on this partnership.”

The show has been produced by PBS NewsHour, a part of WETA, the PBS affiliate in Washington, D.C. The Atlantic’s partnership adds a second producer, covering some of the program’s costs and helping it sell sponsorships, according to The New York Times, which first reported the news. Semafor first reported that Goldberg was in talks to host.

The news comes nearly three months after The Daily Beast’s Confider newsletter reported the network’s desire to field outside candidates for the role. Since Alcindor’s departure, the program employed a rotating group of NewsHour anchors, including correspondents Laura Barrón-López and Lisa Desjardins and hosts Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett. Goldberg was not among the guest hosts, though he most recently appeared as a panelist last month.

At 57, Goldberg would be the oldest person to assume the role of moderator. Ifill, the show’s most famous moderator, was 44 when she started her 20-year tenure as host, while Alcindor was 34.

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