BBC News: Presenters & Rotas

If anything Louise not following Breakfast to Salford would mean her appearing on the NC more, not less. I wouldn't read too much into rumours about which breakfast star is staying/ going anyway, the Salford move still being quite a way off and all.

Why change anything? The rotas and pairings are good at the moment! Simon and Carrie are great together - why split them up? Certainly wouldn't put Ben to the 10.30pm shift, he is one of the best on the channel - i think it would be better to have him on when more viewers are on etc! I would imagine that the pairings haven't changed in the last few years because they work well!

I think the only changes that could be made would be introducing some sort of stability to the afternoon and evening shifts. Carrie and Simon are great as they are and Jane and Matthew handle the late morning shift with ease, but the afternoon and evening shifts have become a little too unpredictable and could benefit from stability. It's anyone's guess if Ben will be on with Joanna and Louise is so rarely on the afternoon shift now, perhaps giving Jon a new permanent co-presenter would be for the best. Emma Crosby would be a fine example, although current presenters such as Sophie Long have easily earned their places in more regular weekday slots.

The structure of the channel's presenters is there and needs not be changed, but I think if you asked anyone whether they'd rather have Carrie Gracie as the main morning presenter or have Kate Silverton there with Simon, despite rarely presenting and being constantly covered by Carrie and other relief presenters (which was the case before Kate was handed her "portfolio"), you'd pick Carrie. I just think it's become obvious Louise is going to continue to have other projects diverting her attention, be them Breakfast or The One Show, a month on Missing Live or a week on the News at One, that she might never properly (and long-term) return to the NC.

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I agree that the only shift they need to fix is afternoon, obviously for whatever reason Minchin is still the official presenter even though she's never there. Jon and Emily are my favorite pairing so I would put her there permanently but she's got Newsnight so I guess it's not possible. So maybe Emma could get this shift.

Seems to me the only consistent pairing at the moment on the NC is Simon and Carrie. Matthew and Jane are quite regular but can be disrupted if either are absent or if Matthew swaps shifts with Ben, Jon and Louise are very rarely on together, and as said above, Louise has other commitments whilst as we know Jon will be off air for the next few weeks following his accident, and Ben and Joanna can be consistent sometimes for about 2 weeks, then Ben goes and swaps shifts with either Jon or Matthew, and Joanna seems to have at least one evening off per week as well (not criticising, I do like her, but she does seem to have a fair bit of time off, unless this is down to her only being contracted to work a certain number of days per year or something)

I think moving Emily to afternoons, with her scheduled for (say) three days a week (which allows time for Newsnight or Network bulletins/ programming) and Sophie Long becoming a more permanent feature on afternoons (presenting twice a week and when Emily isn't available) would be the best move. I think Louise is still the main presenter because each time she takes a secondment (Missing Live, Breakfast etc.) they're fully expecting her to return. In reality, she returns (as she did earlier this year) for a spell on the News Channel before going off to another programme again (such as her currently presenting weekend Breakfasts). Otherwise at least putting a presenter in place for the duration of her leaves would be best, given they most likely would if she took maternity leave.

I think the structure does need to be changed quite a few of the NC’s presenters have other commitments as well as their regular shifts. Simon, Jane, Mathew, Ben and Joanna have Weekend News, Jon has the politics show and Louise has all kinds of other things to do. A page or so ago I posted a revised schedule but here’s another one with a few changes.

8:30-11: Simon and Emily/Rachel Schofiled – Emily presents two or three days a week to allow her to keep her newsnight and BBC One news role , Simon is established in this role is rarely absent and Rachel already is regular cover in this slot for Carrie .

11-2: Jon and Joanna – Jon has big political experience so this role would allow him to perside over things such as PMQ’s and quite a few stories break during this period , Joanna used to present similar hours back in 2003 so has experience in this slot.

2-5 Ben and Carrie - Ben seems to regularly swap his evening **** and oftern appears in this slot of a Friday Julian Worricker presents enabling Ben to present the weekend news where needed , Carrie is a well established presenter who I think could adapt to any slot.

7-10: Mathew and Jane both have well on screen chemistry and are a great pairing plus the fact Clive and Anita present on a Friday meaning that they can present the weekend news.

Keep Chris where he is as he is the best man for the job.
On another note John Simpson is quite close to retirement Tim Wilcox after his work on the miners story and being a regular on BBC World news service would make a great replacement as world affairs editor .

That does sound like a very good schedule ginofish, and I agree it would be good to see Jon and Joanna together in the 11-2 slot

On another note, nice to see Julia Somerville back on this morning doing the morning shift with Simon, also great to see Chris Hollins doing the sport when I was watching at 8.45. Did he stay on or did someone else take over at 9.15?

That was a strange one when I was watching Simon said something to Amanda Daives doing the sport Simon said she had been the third sport presenter so far. then later on I seen James Pearce.

Yea, Chris did the full bulletin at 8:45, with Simon and Julia reading the sport headlines at 9:15. Amanda then appeared at 9:45. I presumed someone called in sick and that Amanda popped over from BBC World News....?

I'd guess so - James Pearce, though a good sports news correspondent, isn't a natural presenter and presents quite rarely. Rushin Chowdry on this afternoon.

No chance in my book. For a start, Simpson has shown no inclination to retire for years. And if he was to be replaced, there are several more likely and better candidates before Willcox (someone with very little field experience for the BBC) would be considered: Ben Brown, Matt Frei, Andrew Harding, Allan Little, Stephen Sackur, Jeremy Bowen to name just a few.