1/ SCOOP: From September, @Peston’s Sunday show on ITV will move to Wednesday evenings. It will follow the news at around 22.35. The show will be renamed from 'Peston on Sunday' to simply 'Peston'...
Interesting - I wonder if this is in response to the "After The News" trial before Christmas? There must have been an appetite for late night political discussion - just not in the format of "After The News". Unless they will run both at different times/days?
The late repeat for Peston has always done quite well, hasn't it?
Double the audience of the daytime programme I thought I'd read. Makes a long sense. Avoids competing with Sky and provides alternative to all the Sunday programmes.
It's a good move to have a national weekly late night political show on ITV. I think like Global has with LBC, it may be loss making, but gives ITV a lot of political kudos to do it.
At least I'll no longer have to record Peston to watch later while watching Ridge on Sky News.
Interesting. Do we think there's going to be much of an appetite for political agenda on a Wednesday evening? Given that we get it on a Thursday evening with Question Time and This Week as well as the ITV Regional Political programmes and the usual Sunday morning slot with all the major networks currently.
Giving Politics an airing on another night of the week could be seen as a bit overkill.
I can see why ITV think this will be more useful to them than on a Sunday, and of course they lose the Champions League highlights next season, but in terms of making an impact I think it is a mistake and it'll be as lost as The Agenda was on Monday nights.
I don't know the ratings for the Sunday morning shows on BBC1, ITV and Sky though it is safe to say that Andrew Marr by far outrates the competition. However Peston on Sunday was getting the guests, getting recognised and getting coverage across the news bulletins, which possibly helped the repeat ratings as well.
It also means the one tentpole in ITV's weekend daytime schedules is removed.
Interesting. Do we think there's going to be much of an appetite for political agenda on a Wednesday evening? Given that we get it on a Thursday evening with Question Time and This Week as well as the ITV Political programmes and the usual Sunday morning slot with all the major networks currently.
Giving Politics an airing on another night of the week could be seen as a bit overkill.
Technically politics is every night with Newsnight though.
It can’t do worse than it did on a Sunday morning, nobody ever gave it a chance, it was way behind The Sunday Politics and the debate programming shown opposite it on BBC One. I’m not sure it ever really grew across all the various series. It’s a shame but I suppose it can’t go on as it was for ever.
Interesting. Do we think there's going to be much of an appetite for political agenda on a Wednesday evening? Given that we get it on a Thursday evening with Question Time and This Week as well as the ITV Regional Political programmes and the usual Sunday morning slot with all the major networks currently.
Giving Politics an airing on another night of the week could be seen as a bit overkill.
Wednesday is probably one of the best days to have it - with PMQs happening earlier that day, there's bound to be news/ discussions which should take place.
It will be interesting to see how the format of the new Wednesday version differs from the current Sunday version. Part of the reason for having these political programmes on a Sunday morning is that they can react to what's been published in the Sunday papers. I like the idea of having a political programme on a Wednesday. With QT and TW on BBC One on Thursdays - you could be forgiven for thinking UK politics only happens on a Thursday! How much time the new Peston programme will dedicate to PMQs will be interesting. By 22:35 it might be considered old news already.
Having said all of that, there are natural television presenters and there are television presenters who eventually "get it" with experience. Peston falls into neither of these categories, unfortunately. You can be the best journalist in the world - and he's probably one of them - but it doesn't make you right for television presenting.
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I can't imagine it will get any where near as much attention as it did on a Sunday - Newsnight, This week and Question Time comments don't make the news that often while the Sunday shows have a much higher rate of news making - and Peston more than Sophy Ridge on Sky recently.
Through it has also been criticized as being politically biased in terms of the guest's it has on and peston's own analytical views.