ITV News

I agree, it is a shame that Katie doesn't present the 6.30pm and 10pm bulletins more often, but it just isn't practical. She's back at London Tonight and presenting almost every day unlike this time last year, so that automatically rules her out of the 6.30pm bulletin. And if Mary or Julie is absent then it makes sense for one to cover the other, because 6.30pm and 10pm bulletins cover a lot of the same stories.

I still think its daft that Alastair is still the lead presenter on the 1.30pm bulletin as well as the 6.30pm one, when Katie is a perfectly adequate face of the 1.30pm news and still doesn't have her 'own' bulletin despite being one of the main ITV presenters. Should Mary or Julie leave (which I doubt, ITV News is as big as it gets with the BBC aside) then I'd like to think Katie will get a long overdue promotion. IMO it always should have been Mary relaunching News at Ten in January 2008, as good as Julie is.

You won't be surprised to hear that I agree but I don't think Alastair is the lead presenter on the 1.30pm News. It used to be that he would present it three days per week more often than Katie because Katie officially only works four days per week, but even that is no longer the case, with Alastair rarely presenting more than twice.
I'm fairly sure that they are recognised as sharing the 1.30pm equally - as for why Katie isn't the sole main presenter, presenting it four days per week, I would imagine that the current arrangement of less frequent early starts and greater flexibility suits her. (Personally, I think ITV News should have appointed Katie as the main female presenter of the Evening News when things were rearranged back in 2004.)

Nothing "absurd" about it at all - Mary and Alastair are the official faces of the 6.30pm bulletin, Mark and Julie of the 10pm bulletin - so if they're there it's natural they will lead the bulletin, and if they're not but one from the other bulletin is they will lead it as they are the faces of ITV News in the evenings. Katie may be more than capable too, but like it or not she's fifth in the pecking order now.

And after all, it's not like the "lead" the bulletin for anything more than the first headline - it's pretty much a 50/50 split throughout otherwise - and indeed even the secondary presenter still gets in on the top story after the main titles run.

Yes, I would expect the presenters to lead their own bulletins, I'm just not quite so convinced by the 'faces of ITV News in the evenings'.
(Katie led the 6.30pm News when she presented it with Julie, it's just that she no longer does so with Alastair or Mark.)

Edit: Katie led the 6.30pm bulletin whilst presenting with Alastair when it was announced that John Terry had been sacked as England captain, so my original premise that she hadn't done so recently was wrong, sorry, (though I still think Katie should present and lead the evening news far more often than she does ).


That's true.
(If anything Katie introduced more than half the programme on Tuesday despite not leading the bulletin.)

Im expecting to see budget promos but obviously not iirc last year they did oh and tonights national and local bulletins were the perfect amount of time for a weekend.

I think they'll start trailing the Budget programme from tomorrow, if at all.

And on the subject of bulletin lengths - has anyone else noticed that the update on a Sunday lunchtime has gradually increased in length? IIRC it was only usually around five minutes long, but over the last few weeks it has been extended to ten minutes. Today it was in a fifteen-minute slot. Notice how tonight's 6:30pm news was also longer at twenty minutes but tonight's 10pm bulletin is only fifteen.

Why has there been next to nothing publicised about "Mary Nightingale Interviews Nick Clegg", broadcast at 10:15pm this evening? It would've been nice to have an ITV News face interview Brown rather than Piers Morgan, seeing as they had Trevor talk to Cameron and now Mary interviewing Clegg.

ITV News reported on the Nick Clegg interview in yesterday's bulletins.

Ive noticed James Mates seems to be the regular Sunday presenter despite Katie/Mary/Mark/Julie etc alternating for a few months on the Sunday bulletins. Actually I only recall Mark presenting once and that was just the main 6.30pm bulletin.

Romilly did the late bulletin that night. I think Steve Scott was meant to present that Sunday, until the allegations made against him by Lisa Aziz?

Lisa Aziz did not make any allegations against him, I think you are confusing two different issues there.

Goodness me, that was amusing... anyone else see it?

The camera on Mary at the top of the bulletin (right before the bong) flew down quite a few inches, complete with squeaky noise. Well, either that or Mary jumped up in the air.

I should think it'll be available for all to see on the website later on this evening. Made me laugh anyway!



Yes, I saw that too, but ITV1 made promos for both the Brown and Cameron programmes. I'd not seen any other mention of the Clegg programme outside the weekend news.

Mary Is Using Magic