The Newsroom

BBC News: Presenters & Rotas

(April 2008)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
WO
Worzel
Why don't they bring back the likes of Justin Webb and Chris Lowe back to the main BBC 1 bulletins they used to be great presenters in the late 1990's.
ST
Stitch08
Mishal Husain in the studio for the Five O'Clock News Hour just now, with Huw in Washington. Unusual to see her outside of the weekend bulletins. I assume she did her World News shift as well?
BA
bakamann
BBC World News also has Huw, but turned over to Nik Gowing after the broadcast.

and when Huw is talking to the guy from Gallup, it seems that there had been a problem, then focused it to Huw which made the most weirdest face (sour+irritation i think)...
JW
JamesWorldNews
Huw clearly looked exhausted whilst presenting live from DC yesterday at 5pm UK time.
BR
Brekkie
Where has George Aligiah been during the US Election. Fair enough I don't watch BBC News regularly at all, but in the last few weeks everytime I've caught the Six o'clock News it's been Sophie Raworth hosting - and I find it rather strange that one of the BBC's flagship newsreaders seems to have been AWOL during the biggest story of the year.
RO
roo
I have a strange feeling I'm the only person watching Newsnight Scotland with any interest tonight.
SE
Seb
Brekkie posted:
Where has George Aligiah been during the US Election. Fair enough I don't watch BBC News regularly at all, but in the last few weeks everytime I've caught the Six o'clock News it's been Sophie Raworth hosting - and I find it rather strange that one of the BBC's flagship newsreaders seems to have been AWOL during the biggest story of the year.


I dont see it as a bad thing myself.
HO
House
Does anyone else think that the beeb have organised the BBC News at Six so it has pretty random relief/ friday presenters? Sian presented it for most of 2008 (since it went single headed) on fridays and during George's absense, and then disappeared and was replaced by Fiona Bruce. Since then, Sophie seems to be the preferred choice when George is off - and lets not forget Nick Owen... so could it therefore be that there is actually no fixed second presenter?

</bored>
JC
jc
It's probably just extending the News Channel 'policy'. While it makes sense to integrate the presentation team with other BBC outlets, Politics Show, Crimewatch, Sunday Live, etc, the result is you never quite know who you're going to get.

It is bewildering that the BBC with so many staff can't find regular relief presenters (other than Tim Wilcox) to fill the ever-growing number of empty chairs.

Banning leave in half-term would help as well Very Happy
JW
JamesWorldNews
jc posted:
It's probably just extending the News Channel 'policy'. While it makes sense to integrate the presentation team with other BBC outlets, Politics Show, Crimewatch, Sunday Live, etc, the result is you never quite know who you're going to get.

It is bewildering that the BBC with so many staff can't find regular relief presenters (other than Tim Wilcox) to fill the ever-growing number of empty chairs.

Banning leave in half-term would help as well Very Happy


Indeed, jc. After several "weeks" of "weekend stability" over here on World, we suddenly get Navdip Dhariwal and Jannat Jalil popping up out of the blue, in comparsion to the usual regularity of Dennis, Dobbie and Thomas. (Admittedly, Peter Dobbie has been filling-in quite a lot of midweek slots too in the recent weeks.)
NG
noggin Founding member
imnogoth posted:
Does anyone else think that the beeb have organised the BBC News at Six so it has pretty random relief/ friday presenters? Sian presented it for most of 2008 (since it went single headed) on fridays and during George's absense, and then disappeared and was replaced by Fiona Bruce. Since then, Sophie seems to be the preferred choice when George is off - and lets not forget Nick Owen... so could it therefore be that there is actually no fixed second presenter?

</bored>


I think the notion of a "designated" number two - like Darren Jordon was to Anna Ford on the One, Sian was to Natasha on the Six etc. - has effectively been binned to save money. There was a time when only Huw and Fiona ever presented the Ten, with George the only other option...

These days they are far less selective about who presents specific network bulletins - and there is instead a much wider pool of "good enough" presenters who are deemed acceptable for BBC One duties, irrespective of the bulletin. (In the old days there were "One", "Six" and "Ten" faces, along with "Breakfast" faces)

I guess it is partially because more people are watching the News Channel, and a decision has been taken that the network bulletins can be a bit less "special" now that the competition is so weak. If ITN had a strong line-up - then the Beeb would probably have stuck to rigid presentation teams on each bulletin - as familarity is a good tool to engender audience loyalty. However with major budget savings required (and the One O'Clock News being effectively a News Channel productio these days) this is a luxury that the BBC has decided it doesn't need to afford. (Fewer presenters doing more shifts is cost effective)
JW
JamesWorldNews
Don't quite know how they managed it, but the BBC Newsreaders' vocal performance on Children in Need was actually quite good and in-tune. Were they singing live, one wonders? Regardless, a particularly good performance by the team. Sophie Raworth's blonde appearance was very much Agnetha-esque!

What time was their performance aired on CIN, because I noted from the BBC News Channel Thread that Fiona Bruce also presented the Ten oClock News.

Newer posts