Emily Maitlis to host Newsnight

Umm, hasn't she presented news for longer than 7 years.

That is an extremely purile and inaccurate remark.

I just had to google this presenter as I wasn't entirely sure I'd got the right person in my mind- the first result involved the words "leggy BBC news reader".

Now I'm not saying that it's her fault (she is after all very attractive) but it's hard to present a show like Newsnight when your looks are your current claim to fame (as opposed to holding a senior national news position or reporting post for several years).

I haven't really seen her present more than about 15 minutes of BBC London news so I'm going to have to give her a chance and see what happens. You never know, she could be a revelation.

Thanks. That was the intention.

x

Well, as long as that was the intention then I guess it is okay then

Martha Kearney stands in sometimes as well...

John

This is quite simply devastating news, nothing short of a spectacular disaster in Newsnight history.

The woman is a complete fool. Her interview technique consists of asking an obvious question, letting the guest get about 8 words out before going "mmm... ok... right... yes" over them until they give up. It's a very cheap and undistinguished interviewing technique which is supposed to be offputting to the interviewee, as it gets them worked up and therefore thrown off the original point.

She's rude and abrasive, but she clearly doesn't have the gravitas to justify it. Paxman get away with rubbing guests up the wrong way because nine times out of ten, the guests know that he's absolutely right, and that they're immediately on their back foot as soon as the question is asked. When Maitlis asks a question, the guest is simply left wondering why on earth she asked something so ridiculous.

I simply can't get my ahead around why "BBC executives" would want to so publicly sh¡t over their so-called flagship news programme. Oh well, it'll make fascinating viewing, however horrific it may be to watch.

Well I may be slated yet again - but I would have said Martha Kearney, Gavin Esler, Eddie Mair - indeed my namesake on this forum would have been better than Maitlis. Yet I do not know enough about Emily to form an educated opinion.

One thing I would say is - want a damn good career on TV news - join BBC LDN and you're laughing. Just look at Nina Hossain and Gillian Joseph. Asad next ?

I very much doubt you'd be slated dear boy, you've essentially hit the nail on the preverable head.

Let me enlighten you a little. News and Personality is Emily's forte and my god she's perfected it to an art! Utterly wrong choice for a heavyweight news programme with big words.

As Cat so excellently put this - Executives made this choice .

Please tell me this is a wind-up? Or an agent planted bit of puff ... (remember Nicky Campbell presenting Newsnight???)

How could anyone consider Emily Maitlis for Newsnight - she has all the credibility and gravitas of a Princess Di lookalike...

It isn't even as if she has a great ability to present and can use this to mask her lightweight interviewing technique - when things go wrong on BBC London (which they seem to quite frequently) - she is really bad at adlibbing out of it. Whenever BBC London have done special interview shows - she's always seemed completely out of her depth.

I could imagine her reading the Newsbulletins in Breakfast as a Moira stand-in - but Newsnight???

Eddie Mair as an occasional presenter I get - but Emily?

Hasn't she been a Kaplinsky stand-in before?

Lay off Emily... She's actually very bright... and a great presenter...

Now if it was Kaplinsky they were trying out on Newsnight... THEN I'd be furious...

Let's see how Emily does and THEN discuss.