BBC Breakfast

But equally - some will be more than happy to move for a promotion and the opportunity to work on a show that is so popular.



Think the format and production - and the lack of adverts and competitions - are a key element in appealing to the audience, as is not underestimating the intelligence and interests of their audience. But you need good, assured, confident and comfortable-in-their-skin presenters as well. You don't need huge names, but you do need people who are competent, credible and an easy watch.

It would be a good opportunity to promote someone from within the regions.

Why not give Clive Myrie some relief shifts again (he presented in... 2011 I think, with Susanna Reid in the summer) and perhaps offer Fri-Sat with Naga? Charlie should get Mon-Thu with Louise in my opinion, but then we must consider the freelance contracts etc.

Suspect they'd have to come via the News Channel to demonstrate their ability to cope with breaking news. That's something most regional presenters won't have experience of on their local 1830 shows, but will need to have on Breakfast (which does it well)

I'd suggest while you don't need a 'huge name' presenter, you do need a 'familiar' presenter, which is precisely why the last few new presenters (Naga, Louise, Charlie) have been slowly introduced to the programme as relief presenters, and promoted to regular when a vacancy arose. With that in mind, it seems unlikely the individual would be anyone who hasn't been appearing semi-frequently over the last few years - Jon Kay, Simon McCoy or Roger Johnson.

The only other male candidate I can think of within the existing team would be Ben Thompson, who I don't believe has ever co-presented but seems like a 'rising star' at the BBC and might fit the bill (though barely fits under that ceiling). It would be quite a big jump, but considering Victoria Fritz presented a Sunday and Steph and Sally both fill in, it wouldn't be that big a jump.


I think the other presenter whose shoes would be hard to fill would be Carol Kirkwood, who has been doing even longer weeks than Bill for several years now. There are many talented forecasters at the BBC, but none as closely-associated with Breakfast as Carol.

The genius thing about Breakfast is that you can have any number of stand-ins that simply slot in and yet the format still works. And that's still the case when Bill or Carol are off.

When Ms Reid left, they simply got Louise Minchin to move up to the Mon-Thurs shift and it still beats GMB in the ratings, despite the high profile signing.

Ben Thompson is a good call actually, he's entertaining, yet has authority on BBC Business Live, yet can see him fitting into the mould for Breakfast.

Is Bill Turnbull freelance? Or is he contracted to do his three days a week?

The production team just cross their fingers every Monday he'll turn up.

A genuine question: do presenters and other television workers with regular/typical schedules who are freelance, or otherwise paid through personal service companies, have more flexibility in choosing when and how often they take time off than their staff colleagues? In principal a freelancer has the ability to say "sorry, I can't make next Tuesday" in the same way their boss can say "sorry, we don't need you next week", but if you have effectively been appointed to a job and simply agreed to use a non-employee contract for tax purposes, I wonder what the practical reality is? What proportion of the staff on a production like Breakfast are freelancers?

Those are not mutually exclusive. You can be contracted as a freelancer.

Yep certainly a few years ago the BBC used to encourage contracts as opposed to 'going on staff' - you get paid slightly more, but obviously you may have to sort your own tax / NI out and also have no job security necessarily at the end of the contract.

How time off is negotiated will very much depend on the show and the contractual obligations a freelancer is under. Freelance employment (or via a service company) doesn't have to mean you are booked ad hoc. You can have long term bookings, a contract to appear xx number of days etc.

When it comes to production staff - the proportion of continuing staff, fixed term contract staff, contracted freelancers and ad hoc freelancers will vary. In News there is a much higher proportion of continuing staff (i.e. people who are 'staff') than in other production areas, where short fixed term contracts and freelancers are a much higher proportion, and the number of continuing staff is much lower.

This is because News has a pretty constant workload all year round, and long-term continuing productions, so can justify employing continuing staff, whereas Factual, Entertainment, Comedy etc. have peaks and troughs in their workload, so small numbers of continuing staff reduces down-time when people are paid without productions to work on...