Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly,” an award-winning weekly television series, will end in early 2017 after a 20-year run.
The last episode will air Feb. 24, announced WNET, the parent company of THIRTEEN Productions.
“It has been a great privilege to report the many ways people of faith worship and serve others,” host and executive editor Bob Abernethy said in a statement Dec. 14. “We are deeply grateful to our thoughtful staff and also to our viewers, many of whom have told us the program consistently affirms the values they most respect.”
The show’s 20 years of broadcasting is unusually long for syndicated series and TV programs in general.
Founded by Abernethy and launched in 1997, it provided national and international news coverage and analysis about religion.
High-profile interviews
It included interviews with newsmakers ranging from the Dalai Lama to former president Jimmy Carter; profiles of religious leaders such as evangelist Billy Graham and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; and surveys about faith after 9/11 and about “nones,” or the unaffiliated.
Stephen Segaller, vice president of programming for WNET, said, “WNET is honored to have been the producing station for ‘Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly’ all these years. We take great pride in all the awards and accolades the series has deservedly garnered during this time.”
The show won more than 200 industry awards including all of the Religion News Association’s (RNA) 2016 honors for television news magazine religion reporting and made similar RNA sweeps in two previous years. It also was honored with the Wilbur, Gracie Allen and New York Festival awards.
The statement said the series’ website, which won five Webby Awards, will remain available. It provides access to an extensive archive, including transcripts of individual shows and streaming videos. (RNS)
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