The Slatest

PBS Will Have the First Female Co-Anchor Team in Network News

Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff will become the first female co-anchor team on a newtowrk news cast, PBS announced Tuesday.

Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

MacNeil/Lehrer meet Ifill/Woodruff. The New York Times with the details:

PBS announced on Tuesday that Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff would take over the nightly newscast in September, putting an end to the rotating anchor format that has been in effect for several years. Ms. Ifill and Ms. Woodruff will also share the managing editor responsibilities for the program.

The appointments are another milestone for women on television and in journalism, seven years after Katie Couric became the first solo anchor of a network nightly newscast. PBS noted in a news release that “this will mark the first time a network broadcast has had a female co-anchor team.”

PBS’s nightly newscast began in 1975 and eventually became best known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, with Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil co-anchoring the program until 1995 when MacNeil retired and Lehrer ran the show solo until 2011. Their company, MacNeil/Lehrer Productions, remains in charge of the hour-long newscast and they were both reportedly involved in the decision to pair Ifill and Woodruff behind the news desk. More details over at PBS.