The Newsroom

20th years since NAT was first dumped

ITV Nightly News (March 2019)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
MA
Markymark


The reinstating of "News at Ten" in 2001 was half arsed. Three nights a week the 20 minute Nightly News would air at 10.00pm. Fridays was kept at 11.00 but now renamed Weekend News, and one night a week the 10.00 bulletin could be shifted. Plus ITV suddenly not being able to start on time made on week in the Spring of 2001 like this:

Monday - 10.04pm. Tuesday - 10.45pm. Wednesday - 10.07pm. Thursday - 10.00pm. Friday - 11.00pm.

Not great, when considering BBC 1 started bang on the dot of 10.00 as did the old News at Ten on ITV.

There was no effort put into the reinstatement of News at Ten in 2001. It was all window dressing. Taking Sir Trevor from 6.30 and moving him to 10.00 wasn't going to help in the long run. Also casting the local news adrift to 11.20pm most nights was truly idiotic scheduling. Something they realised by 2002.

The old News at Ten didn’t start on time either. That’s a myth, it regularly started a few minutes past, just nobody cared as there wasn’t a common Junction with BBC One most of the time to clock watch against.


Depends what period you're talking about, unless there had been an overrun or unexpected event NAT always
started at 22:00:00 all through the 70s and 80s, you could set your watch by it. It was around the beginning of the 90s (ironically when ITN moved from Wells St to GIR that it started to get a bit lax)
SW
Steve Williams
Depends what period you're talking about, unless there had been an overrun or unexpected event NAT always
started at 22:00:00 all through the 70s and 80s, you could set your watch by it. It was around the beginning of the 90s (ironically when ITN moved from Wells St to GIR that it started to get a bit lax)


I don't think that was the case, there are lots of examples of News at Ten on YouTube from the eighties where the clock is showing a few minutes past ten. Here's an example in appalling quality - https://youtu.be/rlVby9fHgsU

Actually in the early eighties there were actually quite a few occasions when News at Ten wasn't on at ten, I have various TV Times when on Thursdays it would quite often start at around 10.15 if they wanted to show a long film before it. Here's an example when they showed it at 10.30 so they could show the play A Voyage Round My Father - https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6_89AAAAIBAJ&sjid=fkkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1633%2C487597. And sometimes if they wanted to show a long film they would do the news at nine o'clock or 9.30, I've got a TV Times where someone complains about it.

Actually one thing that did for the Nightly News was that, for the first few months at least, it wouldn't always be on at eleven o'clock and if they were showing a film that wasn't exactly two hours long, for example, the Nightly News would start at 10.50 or so, which was no good. The audience can cope with the news being on a few minutes late, but not it being ten minutes early. Although after a few months they stopped that and ensured the news started at eleven by cutting bits out of films if they were too long.

The other thing about that News at When period is that at that time, ITV were always, always running late. This was actually thanks to the deal that got News at Ten back, to compensate the ITC let them show more adverts in primetime, and hour long shows would now have three ad breaks rather than two. That meant the shows that had been made under the old structure were now longer than an hour as they had more adverts in them, and over the course of the evening ITV would end up running ages late, if you ever wanted to record anything after News at Ten you would usually have to leave the tape running for a good ten or fifteen minutes, and this carried on for about a year or so.

I still think there could have had news at 8.30 if it wasn't for Channel 5, it could have been a good bookend to keep things simple.
17.10 Evening news.
17.30 H&W
18.00 local news
18.30 ITV peak

That in the long run could have freedITV to have many great shows, including two hour dramas, or even friday night chat show at 10pm. Alas ITV mist its chance and as pointed out by Steve Williams ITV thought any old crap would do.


But the problem with the news at 8.30 is that you'd always need half hour shows for 8pm, of which there are a finite number (much like when they needed half hour shows at 10pm when the news was at 10.30), and most obviously it would interfere with so much live football, and ITV had lots of it in primetime those days. Also primetime at 6.30 was alright in the seventies and early eighties, but from the late nineties people generally came home and went to bed later.
BR
Brekkie
Think it was just ITV News from 2001 with generic titles. From 1999-2001 only the Bank Hiliday bulletins were branded ITV News but had no titles, instead beginning with a wide shot of the studio. Think it was the same for the Morning News until ITV took over the news channel (and initially they continued with the old ITN look).
:-(
A former member
[
But the problem with the news at 8.30 is that you'd always need half hour shows for 8pm, of which there are a finite number (much like when they needed half hour shows at 10pm when the news was at 10.30), and most obviously it would interfere with so much live football, and ITV had lots of it in primetime those days. Also primetime at 6.30 was alright in the seventies and early eighties, but from the late nineties people generally came home and went to bed later.


If only ITV had programme that is 30mins long Wink What about Corrie. each weekday at 8pm Razz
JK
JKDerry

The reinstating of "News at Ten" in 2001 was half arsed. Three nights a week the 20 minute Nightly News would air at 10.00pm. Fridays was kept at 11.00 but now renamed Weekend News, and one night a week the 10.00 bulletin could be shifted. Plus ITV suddenly not being able to start on time made on week in the Spring of 2001 like this:

Monday - 10.04pm. Tuesday - 10.45pm. Wednesday - 10.07pm. Thursday - 10.00pm. Friday - 11.00pm.

Not great, when considering BBC 1 started bang on the dot of 10.00 as did the old News at Ten on ITV.

There was no effort put into the reinstatement of News at Ten in 2001. It was all window dressing. Taking Sir Trevor from 6.30 and moving him to 10.00 wasn't going to help in the long run. Also casting the local news adrift to 11.20pm most nights was truly idiotic scheduling. Something they realised by 2002.


This is really annoying me, because I should know this, but how did ITV brand the bulletins that didn't start at 10.00? I'm not counting the ones that were just a few minutes late, but like the Tuesday bulletin listed above. Did they stick with News at Ten, or did they just go with a generic ITV News? I've seen bulletins on YouTube branded as "ITV News" or "ITV News and Sport", but I'm assuming they were early evening weekend bulletins.

I remember watching a typical Tuesday in 2001, where there was a football match until 9.45pm. Then "Survivor" from 9.45 to 10.45. And then, branded ITV News at Ten with the announcer saying it, Sir Trevor was on the air with the News at Ten ... 45.
BR
Brekkie
It was very rare for Trevor to host a non-10pm edition. John Suchet ultimately hosted the non-Ten late editions, though maybe not initially as I think he still fronted the Lunchtime News.

Worth noting the 2001 revived News at Ten propelled Mary Nightingale into primetime. She'd only just joined ITN as maternity cover for Kirsty Young and within weeks found herself co-hosting the Evening News, and with Kirsty returning to C5 within the year she's been there pretty much ever since.

The ITV Evening News only really found its feet IMO when it became co-hosted in 2001 and especially a couple of years later once Mark Austin took over and excelled on location during the Iraq War. Trevor McDonald didn't really suit the earlier evening slot (or indeed the lightweight 2001 News at Ten) and after initially Dermot being the main cover I think Kirsty Young ended up being the ever more frequent cover in 2000.
JK
JKDerry
It was very rare for Trevor to host a non-10pm edition. John Suchet ultimately hosted the non-Ten late editions, though maybe not initially as I think he still fronted the Lunchtime News.

Worth noting the 2001 revived News at Ten propelled Mary Nightingale into primetime. She'd only just joined ITN as maternity cover for Kirsty Young and within weeks found herself co-hosting the Evening News, and with Kirsty returning to C5 within the year she's been there pretty much ever since.

The ITV Evening News only really found its feet IMO when it became co-hosted in 2001 and especially a couple of years later once Mark Austin took over and excelled on location during the Iraq War. Trevor McDonald didn't really suit the earlier evening slot (or indeed the lightweight 2001 News at Ten) and after initially Dermot being the main cover I think Kirsty Young ended up being the ever more frequent cover in 2000.

Sir Trevor did host the News at Ten editions which were moved. I remember watching a few of them back in 2002 or so. He might have scaled back later, but he certainly did host at least a couple.
JM
JamesM0984
Yep Central had Home and Away (why H&W and not H&A?) at 6 before Central News at 6.30.

Border had the news straight after but then had H&A on at 6.30!

Not to get into the realms of fantasy scheduling but what they should have done with the 2001 changes is had the early bulletin at 17:30-18:00. Then leave it up to the regions where to put the regional news, (not 17:00 obviously) Crossroads and a regional programme.

So you could have had

17.00 Regional Show
17.30 Early Evening News
18.00 Regional News
18.30 Crossroads

Or....

17.00 Crossroads
17.30 Early Evening News
18.00 Regional News
18.30 Regional Programme

Then after that have the late news every night at 22.30, with a shot upsummer around 21.00.
RR
RR
The last suggestion would breach OFCOM licence rules. Don't forget that they need effectively half an hour of the national news to be in "Peak Viewing Time" which is classed as 6pm to 10:30pm.
JK
JKDerry
ITV could have done a very simple thing, brought the Nightly News to 10.00pm and just had it there four nights a week, with the regional news at 10.20pm. Left Friday nights free for movies etc, and moved the news to 11.00pm as originally planned. Simple.
:-(
A former member
I always liked the idea of having a later ‘Weekend News’ bulletin on a Friday night.
WH
Whataday Founding member
Worth noting the 2001 revived News at Ten propelled Mary Nightingale into primetime. She'd only just joined ITN as maternity cover for Kirsty Young and within weeks found herself co-hosting the Evening News, and with Kirsty returning to C5 within the year she's been there pretty much ever since.


Mary Nightingale's big moment was surely the Queen Mother's death, because she happened to be on duty that day. The backlash to the BBC's shambolic news flash meant she received high praise.

Newer posts