The Newsroom

BBC News Presenter Count 1967-2020

Presented by Rolling News and mccanmat. With cmthwtv and News96. (May 2020)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
RE
Revitt
It definitely seemed to be a select few who presented news bulletins from the virtual era set with the authoritative dark blue and bronze background (i.e. late weekend and bank holiday bulletins as well as the Nine). Other than Sissons, Buerk, Humphries, Witchell and Lewis, the only others I can think of are Edward Stourton (eg New years eve 95) and Justin Webb (eg xmas eve 97). I don't think there was ever once a female presenter do those late bulletins with that backdrop. IIRC Jill Dando did the Christmas day late news in 1994 as did Anna Ford in 1997 but the pale blue daytime set was used on those occasions (they didn't seem to bother switching to the dark set on Christmas day in that era). Would be interested if anyone knows otherwise.
Last edited by Revitt on 13 June 2020 3:16am - 3 times in total
JW
JamesWorldNews
Starting off with an easy 9 O’Clock news year....

1999
Peter Sissons 119
Michael Buerk 117
George Alagiah 13
Nicholas Witchell 2

George first appearance on Thursday 20th May


Incredible to see a maximum of 4-5 different presenters covering the bulletin across a period of six years, and, when you drill down, really only two presenters with the lions share (Messrs Sissons and Buerk).

Changed days........as someone posted a few pages back, today (*10pm) you could find 4-5 presenters in one week! (Certainly one month).

Do your figures also assume weekend late bulletins?
MC
mccanmat
Starting off with an easy 9 O’Clock news year....

1999
Peter Sissons 119
Michael Buerk 117
George Alagiah 13
Nicholas Witchell 2

George first appearance on Thursday 20th May


Incredible to see a maximum of 4-5 different presenters covering the bulletin across a period of six years, and, when you drill down, really only two presenters with the lions share (Messrs Sissons and Buerk).

Changed days........as someone posted a few pages back, today (*10pm) you could find 4-5 presenters in one week! (Certainly one month).

Do your figures also assume weekend late bulletins?


I ran the count just for the 9 o’clock news on weekdays.... might Consider looking at doing presenter counts for the late news at weekend at some point...
MC
mccanmat
Nine O’Clock News 1993:

Martyn Lewis 120
Michael Buerk 120
John Humphrys 6
Nicholas Witchell 2
Andrew Harvey 2
Chris Lowe 1 (Xmas Bank Holiday)


In Radio Times this year they gave information: BBC NEWS BY TELEPHONE: can be heard between 5.00am and 8.00pm on 0[number removed]. Calls are 36p per minute cheap rate. 48p at other times
:-(
A former member
The 9 o’clock news was obviously too serious for women.
RN
Rolling News
So between October 1988 (when the Nine went solo) and June 2001 (when Fiona Bruce first did the Ten) it looks like there were no female anchors on the Nine or Ten!
Last edited by Rolling News on 13 June 2020 4:59pm
MC
mccanmat
Backwards in the 90’s for the Nine O’Clock News...

1992
Michael Buerk 128
Martyn Lewis 115
John Humphrys 4
Phillip Hayton 1
Moira Stuart 1 * Early May Bank Holiday edition

There were also two errors in RT this year:
7 Jan Peter Sissons AND Jill Dando was listed
17 Jan Peter Sissons AND Moira Stuart were listed...

As 92 was an election year the editions between 30 March and 10 April were listed as “and campaign report”
MC
mccanmat
Nine O’Clock News 1991
Michael Buerk 126/7*
Martyn Lewis 117
John Humphrys 5
Phillip Hayton 3
Andrew Harvey 1
Chris Lowe 1 * listed for 30 Dec but YouTube shows Michael Buerk doing it...
Again RT have two glaring errors in this year:
7 Aug listed as Andrew Harvey and Jill Dando
6 Dec lists Peter Sissons and Moira Stuart...

As 91 was Gulf War year, there was likely changes to bulletin time’s and possibly presenters on occasion
MC
mccanmat
Nine O’Clock News 1990
Michael Buerk 124
Martyn Lewis 117
Phillip Hayton 5
Nicholas Witchell 4
John Humphrys 1

90 was World Cup in Italia and the reunification of Germany...

I think save to say Michael Buerk was King of the 9 o’clock news in the 1990s making more
Appearances than anyone else by far!
RN
Rolling News
I noticed those RT errors when I was doing it. I think they mixed up the presenters of the Six with those of the Nine (prats, lol).
MC
mccanmat
Backwards in the 90’s for the Nine O’Clock News...

1992
Michael Buerk 128
Martyn Lewis 115
John Humphrys 4
Phillip Hayton 3 - updated-
Moira Stuart 1 * Early May Bank Holiday edition

There were also two errors in RT this year:
7 Jan Peter Sissons AND Jill Dando was listed
17 Jan Peter Sissons AND Moira Stuart were listed...

As 92 was an election year the editions between 30 March and 10 April were listed as “and campaign report”


Error found! It was the 6 presenter mix up- both of those days was Phillip Hayton
MC
mccanmat
Nine O’Clock News 1991
Michael Buerk 126/7*
Martyn Lewis 117
John Humphrys 5
Phillip Hayton 5 - updated-
Andrew Harvey 1
Chris Lowe 1 * listed for 30 Dec but YouTube shows Michael Buerk doing it...
Again RT have two glaring errors in this year:
7 Aug listed as Andrew Harvey and Jill Dando
6 Dec lists Peter Sissons and Moira Stuart...

As 91 was Gulf War year, there was likely changes to bulletin time’s and possibly presenters on occasion


Also a 6 presenter mix up - those two dates should be Phillip Hayton.... someone at the Radio Times didn’t like Hayton much....

Newer posts