The CBS News Weekend Roundup is a weekly news show that airs on the CBS Radio Network, designed for a one-hour time slot, though it has an actual length without commercials of about forty minutes. It reviews the previous week’s news and provides insights on possible future developments in the United States and the world.
The show, produced Friday afternoons, also airs on CBS Radio affiliates on Saturdays and Sundays. It includes interviews with CBS News radio and TV correspondents and various newsmakers, compilations of reports through the week that have aired both on CBS-TV and CBS Radio, as well as commentary from actor and TV personality Charles Grodin.
In addition, an ad-free podcast of the entire program has been available from CBS News since early 2006, which is first distributed Friday afternoon.
During breaking news events on Fridays and Saturdays the program is updated to affiliate stations which have not aired the program yet to provide the updated information, and likewise the podcast feed.
The Weekend Roundup is anchored by CBS News National Correspondent Dan Raviv in Washington, D.C. Correspondent Howard Arenstein, the Washington radio bureau chief, is the executive producer and also appears on the show as a reporter and guest host. Westwood One handles the distribution.
The broadcast has aired weekly on the network since 2000. The network's then-news director, Mike Freedman, was the creator and first executive producer of the show, with Charlie Kaye as producer. Bill Lynch, former anchor of the morning CBS World News Roundup, was the first host of the Weekend Roundup, then based in New York.
The CBS News Weekend Roundup is based on the early CBS radio format of reporters discussing the issues from different points of the world or nation. That 1938s format was not only the basis for the CBS World News Roundup, which airs mornings and evenings on the radio network, but the Sunday morning talk shows that are a staple of American TV.
The Weekend Roundup is also a direct successor to the CBS Radio Network show Capital Ideas, focusing on government and domestic news, which aired during the 1990s from Washington, D.C. and featured correspondents Rob Armstrong and John Hartge as well as Arenstein.