BBC News: Presenters, correspondent & rotas

Sophie would most likely do the One 4 Days a week and Fiona would cover Huw and George's day off. Not sure about the rest.... To be honest I'm surprised they can fit them all in on a weekly basis. It must be a nightmare for managers when doing the rotas.

I know fantasy rotas are strictly forbidden so that isn't what this is, but something like this would really tidy the rotas up and at the same time ensure everyone has a fixed slot...

One
Mon-Wed: Reeta
Thu-Fri: Jane

Five
Mon-Wed: Ben
Thu-Fri: Jane

Six
Mon-Wed: George
Thu-Fri: Sophie

Ten
Mon-Wed: Huw
Thu-Fri: Sophie

Weekend
Sat: Kate/Reeta
Sun: Mishal/Clive

News Channel (weekdays)
9-11am: Victoria (Mon-Thu), Carrie (Fri)
11am-1pm: Joanna (Mon-Thu), Annita (Fri)
2-5pm: Simon (Mon-Thu), Martine (Fri)
8pm-12am: Clive (Mon-Thu), James Reynolds (Fri)
Whoever does the Five would cover 6.30-7pm

( Weekends )
9am-2pm: Carrie
2-7pm: Annita
7pm-12am: Martine

Fiona would concentrate on Question Time but act as relief on the Six/Ten.

A demotion for Clive it seems. (Not to mention that a 5 day week is now simply unheard of at the BBC).. — I’d whack him on the Ten as a second to Huw as I genuinely think he is very talented at the job.

The one thing that I could see happening on that is Huw dropping the Five. I often wonder whether it will return post pandemic...


I also offer my sincere apologises for starting fantasy rota.

We will blame lockdown if anyone asks.

Clive wouldn't do a 5 day week, he'd only do alternate Sundays and the week he does he would have Thursday off and James Reynolds would cover. He would definitely be main cover on the Six & Ten. I had to do it like that so Sophie gets 4 bulletins! (I'd be rubbish in HR....).

I think that it would be a shame for some of the better changes of the lock down to be revered. I would like to see something along these lines:
Weekdays
09:00 BBC News with Victoria (Monday-Wednesday), Annita (Th-F)
11:00 BBC News with Joanna (Monday-Thursday), Annita (F)
13:00 BBC News at One with Simon (M-W), Jane (Th-Fr)
13:30 Afternoon Live with Simon (M-W), Jane (Th-Fr) including the film review at 13:45 on Friday
17:00, 18:30 BBC News with Christian (M-Th), Carrie (Fr)
18:00 BBC News at Six with Fiona (M), George (Tu-Th), Sophie (F)
19:00 B100D with Christian and Katty (M-Th) (simulcast with world), BBC News with Carrie (Fr)
20:00,23:00 BBC News with Ben (M-Tu), Martine (W-Fr)
21:00 Outside source with whoever
22:00 BBC News at Ten with Fiona (M), Huw (Tu-Th), Sophie (F)
22:30 The Papers with Ben (M-Tu), Martine (W-Fr)
0:00 Newsday with whoever
Saturday
10:00 BBC News with Carrie (including dateline)
14:00 BBC News with Annita
19:00 BBC News with Shaun Ley
BBC One Kate/Reeta
Sunday
09:00 BBC News with Ben
14:00 BBC News with Rebecca Jones
19:00 BBC News with Shaun
BBC One Mishal/Reeta

Not a fan of Clive or Sophie, then?

Sophie would be the main cover for the six and ten, and would therefore be presenting one of the bulletins more often than not considering the external commitments of the other presenters. While she could technically be given more of her own shifts she'd rarely actually present them so there's little point in doing so.

Nonsense. She presented most 6 and 10 bulletins when Huw was ill and George was off in late March/early April and to my knowledge has presented most weeks since. She is as hardworking as any other BBC Newsreader.

Nothing that I said disputes that. Realistically it is extremely rare for all of Fiona, Huw and George to be available to front the news for one reason or another so if Sophie is the main cover for all of them it's simply that she'll already be working most days before considering any shifts of her own.

^ All this is, of course, fantasy.

The job cuts and austerity was ‘paused’ somewhat at the onset of Covid. There will be a day (medically, we hope) when this will all be over but (sadly, we fear) the BBC cost cutting will have to start again.

The luxury of having a large pool of presenters and correspondents on the Nationals and Channel is probably going to be a thing of the past, sadly, with a lot more sharing between the two.

Ironically, for me anyway, the Covid crisis has shown that it IS possible to merge the three news services to some degree, without compromising quality. And, it has also further shown that the BBC News team has extraordinarily exceptional talent! They have carried on through all of this, cool, calm and absolutely perfect and I’ve grown to appreciate the tremendous broadcasting abilities of some presenters that I wouldn’t normally get to see, such as Clive, Reeta, Kate and Mishal.

They have proven to be just as formidable as Huw, Sophie, George, Simon, Martine and co.

Tough choices lie ahead.

Indeed I think it took some time I think for TVF to warm to some like Kate or Reeta - in Kate’s case as she seemed at one stage to be the new Kaplinsky and ubiquitous and Reeta out of nowhere seemed to immediately be one of the main presenters on the national bulletins and at the start was a bit wooden.
However, I think TVF has warmed to both these days. Reeta is great and Kate is one of my favourite of the BBC News presenters - experienced, highly capable but also has a real warmth as Strictly showed.

Ugh! Fantasy rotas. @mods - Please create a thread where people can play this god awful game elsewhere and not on what is a healthy thread.