All Things Considered, NPR's flagship evening news program, is expanding its lineup of hosts: Ari Shapiro and Kelly McEvers will join veterans Robert Siegel and Audie Cornish on weekdays and Michel Martin will become the new host of the weekend show.
The network says the expanded lineup "helps NPR keep pace with the way audiences are consuming news in evening drive-time and opens new doors to audience growth." The changes will take effect in September.
"Adding these voices to our afternoon lineup seven days a week increases our ability to sound like America and the communities we cover," says Michael Oreskes, NPR's senior vice president of news and editorial director. "With these changes, our listeners will benefit from a whole new range of stories, sources and perspectives."
In taking up his new hosting duties, Shapiro returns from London, where he has served as a correspondent. Previously, he was NPR's White House correspondent and prior to that, was a Justice Department correspondent. He started his NPR career as an intern.
McEvers has spent several years reporting from the Middle East, where she ran NPR's Beirut bureau. She earned a number of awards for her reporting in 2012 on the Syrian conflict before returning stateside to take up duties as a National Desk correspondent based on the West coast. As ATC host, she will be working out of studios at NPR West, in Culver City, Calif.
Michel Martin, well known to NPR listeners as the host of Tell Me More, a weekday show that NPR shut down in 2014. She has a strong journalism resume, having worked in print and as a reporter for ABC News. Her live event series with NPR Member stations, "Michel Martin: Going There," will continue.
NPR Media Relations Director Isabel Lara says that the weekend show's current host, Arun Rath, "will be moving back to Boston," but did not elaborate.
Recently, NPR announced that All Things Considered senior host Melissa Block would take on a new role as a special correspondent for the network.
"We are evolving the structure and sound of All Things Considered to engage current and new audiences and make the most of the incredible talent we have on staff," says Chris Turpin, vice president of news programming and operations and former longtime executive producer of All Things Considered.
Behind the scenes, Carline Watson, former executive producer of Tell Me More, will become ATC's new weekday executive producer. Longtime NPR producer and editor Kenya Young, a current acting supervising editor for Morning Edition, will fill the executive producer slot for weekend broadcast.
All Things Considered is heard on more than 700 radio stations and is the most listened-to afternoon drive-time radio news program in the country.
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