The following article appeared in the Nov. 17, 2025, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
Long-running ‘Carolina Business Review’ to go off the air on PBS at the end of December; will figure out new direction
After 34 years on the air, the PBS show “Carolina Business Review” is set to end its long run at the end of the year as it figures out its next steps.
The weekly 30-minute show, which runs on PBS stations in North and South Carolina, says it is “the most widely watched source for business, public policy and public affairs across the region.”
Host and executive producer Chris William tells The Ledger that while he loves the show and that PBS and underwriters have been supportive, he’s ready for a break after taping more than 1,600 episodes while also holding a full-time banking job. (He works in wealth management for Wells Fargo.)
“I don’t know if at the beginning of all this I signed up for the idea that I was going to be a small business owner running a small business,” he said. “I just wanted to do a regional dialogue on TV.”
He says the break is a “sabbatical” and will allow him to take six to nine months to hold conversations about the next incarnation of the show, which regularly hosts leaders in business, economic development and education for in-depth discussions of the issues of the day.
“It’s to rethink the program, as it is now: What is the viability of it? What’s the success of it? What do the underwriters say?” he said. “I think there’s a program here, but it is no longer on linear television as we know it.”
Maybe it turns into a podcast or some other format, William says.
He said that while “Carolina Business Review” has hosted plenty of “rock star CEOs,” the fun is in getting beyond their veneers and into the dialogue, as well as forging connections among guests.
William said some of best-known guests over the past 34 years have been fabled investor Warren Buffett, as well as Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the founders of ice cream empire Ben & Jerry’s. (“They were exactly how you would think — smoking weed, coming into the studio and laughing with everybody.”)
In a mostly coincidental twist of fate, one of the guests on what is likely to be the show’s final taping on Dec. 12 will be UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton — who was a guest on the very first episode of “Carolina Business Review” in 1991. —Tony Mecia
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