‘PBS NewsHour’ Begins Its Overhaul

The 38-year-old “PBS NewsHour” began a new era, adding Saturday and Sunday newscasts for the first time and preparing for the debut on Sept 9 of Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff as the new weeknight anchor team and the first female co-anchors at any network.

With the new weekend edition, viewers got a different program than they perhaps expected. Stories were mostly shorter, at about four minutes — still downright leisurely compared with those on commercial networks, but half the length of many on the weekday PBS program. The goal for “PBS NewsHour Weekend” is a balance of “continuity and change,” said Marc Rosenwasser, its executive producer, adding: “I’m not sure that ‘NewsHour’ viewers are particularly looking for change. So that’s the line to walk, which is to respect their esteemed brand and at the same time, every weekend show is a kind of a laboratory for change.”