PBS News Weekend will air its final broadcast this Sunday, January 11, after PBS named federal budget cuts as the reason for reworking its staffing and programming.
PBS confirmed the cancellation in a post on X, stating: “Due to federal budget cuts, PBS News had to make the difficult decision to rework our staffing and programming. This Sunday, our PBS News Weekend team will sign off the air.”
The announcement follows the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) voting to dissolve itself on January 5, 2026, completing a shutdown process that began after the rescission of federal funding triggered by a May 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump and a $9 billion rescissions package passed by Congress in mid-2025. CPB President Patricia Harrison said, “CPB’s final act would be to protect the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values by dissolving, rather than allowing the organization to remain defunded and vulnerable to additional attacks.” House Speaker Mike Johnson praised the cuts at the time for ending what he called “wasteful spending” on “politically biased media outlets like NPR and PBS.”
In an accompanying video shared with the PBS post, John Yang, the outgoing anchor of PBS News Weekend, reflected on the program’s coverage. “I can think back to the October 7 attacks in Israel, the first assassination attempt on President Trump, President Biden dropping out of the presidential race. And this is, as I like to call it, the small but mighty team that handled this, handled all these stories week in and week out.” He added, “I’ll be leaving PBS News at the end of the month as I step back from full time work, but I’m delighted to say that many members of this team will be sticking around. They’ll be producing some exciting new programming that you’ll be seeing in the coming days and coming weeks.”
In December, the Arkansas Educational Television Commission voted to disaffiliate from PBS by July 1, 2026, citing the $2.5 million in annual membership dues and the broader loss of federal CPB funding as contributing factors. Arkansas PBS has announced plans to rebrand as “Arkansas TV,” with a renewed focus on local programming. The organization says it will seek ongoing support from individual donors, foundations, and corporate sponsors.
A 2023 NewsBusters report cited by Breitbart News found that PBS NewsHour covered congressional Republicans negatively 85 percent of the time. Conservatives have pointed to PBS’s children’s programming as evidence of bias, highlighting content that includes LGBTQ+ themes and antiracism messaging.
Last summer, an MSNBC opinion piece warned that cuts to PBS could reshape children’s educational media, suggesting more young viewers could turn to alternatives like PragerU Kids. The author described PragerU as a “propaganda platform.” The piece argued this shift could lead to “explicitly ideological” content reaching more children. PragerU Kids, which promotes pro-American and constitutional themes, is currently approved as an educational resource in several states.
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