"PBS NewsHour" co-anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett took the reins on Jan. 2, smoothly transitioning from Judy Woodruff's era as the face of PBS' nightly newscast by maintaining the institution's high standards. If you didn't notice much of a change, that's the point. Aside from its reputation for journalistic integrity and expansive, contextual coverage of issues half-hour newscasts merely touch upon, the mark of "NewsHour" is its reliably straightforward presence, cultivated over the nearly five decades it has aired.
Woodruff remains part of the "NewsHour" team as its senior correspondent and hosts the segment titled "Judy Woodruff Presents: America at a Crossroads." Her approachable impartiality, which earned her industry-wide respect, is a reason the program's changing of the guard was drama-free. During a Sunday conversation with Nawaz and Bennett in Pasadena, where PBS introduced them to reporters attending the Television Critics Association's Winter Press Tour, the pair sang her praises without prompting.
