People
Hoppe’s PBS legacy includes ratings jump, innovative production deals
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The chief programmer’s achievements include a co-production deal with the BBC.
People
PBS programmer Hoppe leaving for executive position at ABC News
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PBS President Paula Kerger credited Hoppe with helping PBS become the sixth–most-watched network.
Quick Takes
Monday roundup: Alaska journalists raise concerns; Obama renominates CPB board member
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• A lengthy Columbia Journalism Review feature focuses on a conflict over journalistic ethics at Anchorage-based Alaska Public Media. CFO Bernie Washington has been nominated to serve on the State Assessment Review Board, which helps to determine revenues from oil taxes in the state. APM journalists are concerned about Washington’s appointment compromising the network’s coverage of the review board. “We are aghast, quite frankly, aghast that our management doesn’t understand that this is a solid, more than apparent conflict of interest,” Steve Heimel, host of Talk of Alaska, told CJR.
• President Obama will nominate Elizabeth Sembler for a second term on the CPB board, the White House announced Thursday. Sembler joined the board in 2008 as an appointee of President Bush; her term expires this year. She currently serves as the board’s vice chair.
Programs/Content
PBS expands NewsHour and Charlie Rose
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PBS is reconfiguring its lineup of weekend news programs, backing an expansion of the NewsHour and giving late-night interviewer Charlie Rose a new slot in its Friday-night public affairs block.
Beth Hoppe
PBS acquires new British drama to anchor Sunday nights
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Aiming to build on its successful strategy to boost viewing on Sunday nights, PBS acquired a new hit drama from the BBC, Last Tango in Halifax.
Programs/Content
Hoppe brings ‘outward focus’ to new role as PBS’s chief programmer
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PASADENA, Calif. — The special package of primetime shows about gun violence that PBS unveiled to television critics Monday offers an example of how Beth Hoppe intends to operate as the network’s new chief programmer. Hoppe had been promoted to chief program executive and g.m. only three days before the Dec. 14 shooting in Connecticut claimed the lives of 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. As news of the tragedy unfolded, Hoppe was on the phone with producers, “trying to figure out what the appropriate PBS response was,” she told Current.