{"id":36892,"date":"2025-07-25T18:12:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T18:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/36892\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T18:12:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T18:12:09","slug":"american-experience-to-pause-new-episodes-amid-federal-funding-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/36892\/","title":{"rendered":"‘American Experience’ To Pause New Episodes Amid Federal Funding Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGBH<\/a> is pausing new episodes of American Experience<\/a>, public television\u2019s signature documentary series about American history, following Congress\u2019 move to zero out federal funding<\/a> for stations, NPR and PBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe move comes just as the U.S. is preparing for celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the country\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n

\n\tSusan Goldberg, the president and CEO of GBH, said in a statement, \u201cSevere cuts in federal funding for public media are requiring the system \u2013 including PBS and GBH \u2013 to make difficult decisions about programming and staffing at American Experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe said that American Experience will present its 37th season this fall as planned, with one of the projects including a documentary on the life of Henry Kissinger. She said that next year, \u201cthe series will broadcast and stream a collection of the best and most popular American Experience films and offer vivid digital content for\u00a0America\u2019s 250th anniversary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGoldberg added: \u201cIt will also be a year to research and create, and evaluate ways to present content that connects all\u00a0Americans to a shared history. PBS & GBH believe history is essential to our education mission; we\u2019ll continue to innovate new approaches for American Experience to explore compelling topics, tell stories known and never heard before and grow our audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe added, \u201cInnovation is paramount in this moment of upheaval. We need to do everything we can to ensure we can be here for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGBH, formerly WGBH<\/a>, also cut 13 employees at the series, according to a report from the station\u2019s news division.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast week, Congress approved Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s request to rescind federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting<\/a>, which distributes money to public stations, PBS and NPR. The $1.1 billion over the next two years already had been allocated by lawmakers in previous budget votes.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe decision to pause American Experience was met with some pushback among filmmakers.<\/p>\n

\n\tDocumentary director Stanley Nelson, whose projects featured on the series include Freedom Riders and Jonestown: The Life and Death of People\u2019s Temple, wrote on X, \u201cI was shocked and saddened to learn earlier this week that GBH, a pioneering producer of public media in the U.S., has paused American Experience, the longest-running and most-watched historical documentary series on American television, and laid off its staff and leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added that it was \u201chighly distressing that public media would pause the production of such vital programming that serves the core of this mission. I stand in solidarity with American Experience\u2019s dedicated staff and call on public media leadership to prioritize this essential series at such a crucial time in this nation\u2019s history. We all have a responsibility to preserve the ongoing story of the U.S., especially at a time when freedom of expression is so threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series has won 30 Emmys and 19 Peabody awards.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the signature events on PBS this fall will be Ken Burns\u2019 The American Revolution, a six-part, 12-hour series produced separately from American Experience. He has called <\/a>the federal funding cuts \u201cshort sighted.\u201d He said that about 20% of his budgets come from the CPB and \u201cwe\u2019ll have to make it up. I\u2019m confident that with the extra work, it will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe said: \u201cBut it\u2019s those projects at the national level that might get 50 or 60, maybe even 75% of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They just won\u2019t be able to be made, and so there will be less representation by all the different kinds of filmmakers. People coming up will have an impossible time getting started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GBH is pausing new episodes of American Experience, public television\u2019s signature documentary series about American history, following Congress\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[30123,13025,12,5109,88,30124,13027,111,92,30125],"class_list":{"0":"post-36892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-american-experience","9":"tag-corporation-for-public-broadcasting","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-electionline","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-gbh","14":"tag-pbs","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-tv","17":"tag-wgbh"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}