Show Description:

For 40 years, Washington Week has delivered the most interesting conversation of the week. Washington Week is the longest-running public affairs program on PBS. The show first aired locally on WETA on February 23, 1967. A few months later it began broadcasting over Eastern Educational Network, a group of 14 stations located between Washington, D.C. and Maine. In January 1969, it became the first local program to air on the new Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Washington Week features a group of journalists participating in roundtable discussion of major news events. In its early years, Washington Week maintained three regular correspondents -- Peter Lisagor, Charlie Cordry, and Neil McNeil -- but in 1970 the format changed to three regular reporters and a weekly guest reporter. The program currently maintains a small core group of regular correspondents and a larger group of occasional guests. WETA's public affairs director, John Davenport, served as Washington Week's first moderator. He was succeeded by former CBS newscaster Lincoln Furber; Max Kampelman, Washington attorney and chief arms control negotiator in the Reagan administration; Robert MacNeil, co-anchor of The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour; veteran journalist Paul Duke, and former NBC national political correspondent Ken Bode. October 1, 1999 marked the arrival of Washington Week's newest moderator, Gwen Ifill.