North East Tonight-Full half hour opts for summer

I see that Mr Neville is away and that North East Tonight is currently offering a complete half hour split service (usually just 5 mins from Middlesbrough). Here in York I can see the Teesside programme (presented by Jonathan Morrell) whilst on Sky from Newcastle it's Pam Royle-I wonder how many other people are getting the wrong show because the south programme isn't on Sky!

I noticed a split programme last week but assumed it to be a one off as they were covering a big Teesside story which took up most of the show. In days when ITV appears not to give a toss about regional TV it is quite a suprise. Does anyone remember the last time we had a full edition of Calendar East?

There was a time (once a week I think) when Calendar did more than just a 5 min opt and East and South got extra features and news. I'm not sure why TTTV are doing this - maybe the shape of things to come?

It wouldn't be so bad but both programmes seemed to cover the same stories, just in a different order.

why bother with the split - they're just gonna go back to one when mike returns?!?!?

When I was in the North East in the summer, I found Pam Royle a decent-ish newsreader, but I feel that Jonathan Morrell is far more suited towards the ITV News Channel rather than reading the Tyne Tees News - is Andy Kluz still there?

Yes, Andy Kluz was on today.

North East Tonight again covered ITV regional cut backs, some MP's were meeting today to discuss it.
Just a little fact - one MP said that Tyne Tees' coverage of the NE Assembly result got a 65% share (Anyone get the feeling that it might just have out performed the network)

Wasn't that programme a rather bizarre Soccer Night/politics special hybrid?

Yes, it kept jumping between "The Region Decides" and Soccer Night. It also stayed on air far longer than expected - better than Orange Playlist and Wolf Lake methinks .

Does anyone know if Mike Neville will retire from North East Tonight soon? If so, will there be a return to seperate North and South editions of the programme? Why is there only a 5 min opt from Teesside on the main NE Tonight programme at present and not a seperate edition for the south of the region?

If Mike Neville does retire [which I can't imagine], I'd like to see Andy Kluz take Mike's place. When I used to live in the North East, Andy Kluz was a very good presenter when he co-anchored Network North around 1993.

I'd like to think Teeside would have it's own programme - and would expect it a few years ago (e.g. North East Today were seperate) but I think they're probably just stuck with the daytime bulletins and the 6.05 opt. Teeside do occasionally go on for longer (they take the first 5 mins then take the programme right up to the 6.25 feature or Bob's Weather Village).



But it's not at all likely - It'll probably go back to Pam Royle (she presented the old "Tyne Tees Tonight" and also "Northern Life" before that. I prefer Pam personally.