ITV News

She was one of ITN's best IMO and really they should have made an effort at enticing her back to ITV News. I too haven't heard anything of her since The Sunday Edition ended last November... a shame as she's a brilliant broadcaster.

Yeah I really liked her too. I remember the time she moved to Five News for a bit.

ITV definately have a lack of female presenters at the moment - they only really have Mary, Julie and Katie. How are they managing for the lunchtime news on Fridays as wouldnt Katie normally take a Friday off?

From what I've seen recently, the Friday Lunchtime News has been presented by Alastair with Lucy Meacock.

As already said Lucy sometimes does it which creates the domino effect for Granada Reports- they need to get someone to fill in for Lucy on a Friday. Mary also occasionally appears on the lunchtime news. Theres definitely a shortage, there only seems to be Mary and Katie around regularly at the minute. I know Julie is there too but she only does News at Ten so she isn't counted IMO. The only time I've seen her present outside of the News at Ten style was the first week that The Late News went into the main ITV style.

The shortage seems to have an affect on ITV London to with Alex Hydman presenting nearly every day over th las 2 weeks.

The shortage has been most noticeable locally but as, unfortunately, it's not possible for Katie to present both sets of bulletins there's no question that it's right for the national news to have first call on her time.

Nationally they have coped admirably. Though Katie and Mary occasionally swap bulletins the main difference has been that Lucy pops up now and again whereas it once would have been Nina or Romilly.
I doubt that ITN are looking to hire another, permanent national presenter; Nina was brought in to cover for Mary's maternity leave and was then conveniently in place to cover for Katie's, but (coupled with the closure of the news channel) it resulted in ITN having more presenters than they required at that time.

I'm sure it would have been possible to find someone from outside of ITN willing to take on a short-term contract, but that assumes that no one within the organisation, such as Lucy, was both suitable and wanted the job.

Apart from a few early editions of The Late News, has Julie ever presented a bulletin other than News at Ten?

Cutting back to one host for the Lunchtime and Evening News would help though. Now Mark is back at News at Ten I think Mary should host the Evening News alone, with Mark only fronting it as cover or co-hosting when on location.

And there has never been a need for two presenters at Lunchtime since they cut it back down to half an hour - it always worked better with one before the ill-fated 60-minute version.

No - unless you count the on-location role she played in the ITV News coverage of Budget '08.



That sort of reminds me of Nicholas Owen's excellent anchoring of the Lunchtime News from 2003 to 2004; his numerous quips certainly kept me watching! ("I'll be back <slams chair arms> in this chair tomorrow..." and "...that's all after the break <points to camera and grins> - don't you dare move a muscle!")

I think the evening bulletin could do with just the one presenter, although I think it would be a daft move for the lunchtime bulletin. As I've said a few times in the thread (and people are probably sick of reading the same thing ) but the lunchtime bulletin is a very light bulletin and knows how to target its audience. I think Alastair and Katie reflect the mood of the bulletin quite well- both have a good chemistry and can be serious when needed, but otherwise it comes across as a very friendly atmosphere and you can tell they like presenting with each other. I don't think they should drop that in a hurry and would be lost with just one presenter.

You must have posted that about 150 times now

Here's the Christmas newsreaders rota, according to DigiGuide (to be taken with a pinch of salt...)

Lunchtime News
22/12 (13.30) - Katie Derham and Alastair Stewart
23/12 (13.30) - Katie Derham and Alastair Stewart
24/12 (12.25) - Mary Nightingale
25/12 (13.10) - Katie Derham
26/12 (13.15) - Steve Scott

29/12 (13.10) - James Mates
30/12 (12.25) - James Mates
31/12 (13.15) - Geraint Vincent
01/01 (11.55) - Geraint Vincent
02/01 (12.25) - Katie Derham and Geraint Vincent

Evening News
22/12 (18.30) - James Mates and Mary Nightingale
23/12 (18.30) - James Mates and Mary Nightingale
24/12 (18.45) - Mary Nightingale
25/12 (17.45) - Katie Derham
26/12 (18.10) - Steve Scott

29/12 (18.45) - James Mates
30/12 (18.45) - James Mates
31/12 (18.45) - Geraint Vincent
01/01 (18.45) - Geraint Vincent
02/01 (18.15) - Katie Derham and Geraint Vincent

The Late News/News at Ten
22/12 (22.00) - James Mates and Mary Nightingale
23/12 (22.00) - James Mates and Mary Nightingale
24/12 (22.30) - Mary Nightingale
25/12 (23.30) - Katie Derham
26/12 (22.30) - Steve Scott

29/12 (22.00) - James Mates
30/12 (22.30) - James Mates
31/12 (23.00) - Geraint Vincent
01/01 (23.00) - Geraint Vincent
02/01 (23.00) - James Mates

Weekend News
20/12 (12.10, 18.45, 22.55) - James Mates
21/12 (11.45, 18.15, 23.00) - Steve Scott
27/12 (12.25, 17.50, 22.55) - Steve Scott
28/12 (13.40, 17.45, 23.00) - Steve Scott

Katie on Christmas day .
I had already planned to spend the day in front of the television so that's good news.

Thanks for the info GMc.