NEW YORK (AP) Robert MacNeil, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died on Friday. He was 93.

MacNeil died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, according to his daughter, Alison MacNeil.

MacNeil first gained prominence for his coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings for the public broadcasting service and began his half-hour Robert MacNeil Report on PBS in 1975 with his friend Lehrer as Washington correspondent.

The broadcast became the MacNeil-Lehrer Report and then, in 1983, was expanded to an hour and renamed the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour. The nations first one-hour evening news broadcast, and recipient of several Emmy and Peabody awards, it remains on the air today with Geoff Bennett and Amna Nawaz as anchors.