I would agree that having AL and Sky Today under the same format would make sense,but I think that it should not be a format that involves the whole thing being done from the desk. I would love to see both Dermot and Kay's summary presenter become more involved in the programmes. Perhaps a good way to give the new 'young guns' experience could be for them to act as apprentice like co-presenters for Kay and Dermot.
Agreed on your point of involving the summary presenter more.
For a while, especially on SNT, they had the summary presenter coming back at the end of the hour with some e-mails (like Charlotte does on Sunrise) but this seems to have stopped for some reason.
I've been thinking about Afternoon Live and it's format woes. I appreciate Kay might not like presenting from the island but I think she should at least do the TOTH from there, and move to the desk after the first ad break. A bit like Saturday Live it should embrace as much of the set as possible. Here's my format idea:
.58 Coming up segment with Jason at the news desk
.58 Weather
.00 TOTH Top 3 Stories appear in boxes across the newswall as Kay walks along introducing them
.00 TOTH “Also in the programme...” Jason introduces other stories or features from the news desk
.00 TOTH “This is Afternoon Live with Kay Burley and Jason De La Pena” Kay walks from newswall area to the island
.01 Top 3 Stories with Kay at the island
.12 Kay hands over to Jason at the news desk for summary of the rest of the news
.14 Coming up segment with Kay at the island
.15 Break
.18 Headlines with Kay now sitting at the desk
.18 Top 3 on the Sky News website with Jason at newswall
.18 Kay introduces sports news with Jon at the desk
.24 Weather
.26 Coming up segment with Kay at the desk
.27 Break
.30 Kay at the desk hands over to Jason at the island for a news summary
.34 An in-depth item with Kay at the desk, comprising of special guest interviews and also where possible a graphical introduction with Jason at the newswall
.42 Break
.46 Headlines with Kay at the desk
.46 Kay introduces business news with Anna at the newswall
.52 Kay and Jason both sat at the desk, share some viewer e-mails and texts
.54 Lighter stories
.55 Break
I'm sure somebody at Sky is reading comments from here (re. summary presenters) as i've been watching Sunrise since the 8:30am headlines and between then and 9am Lukwesa didn't leave the sofa.
She was chipping into the discussions and also reading e-mail's relevant to each report. She definitely seemed more involved than summary presenters normally are.
Also, another change for the Live Desk - Anna B at the helm today.
Anna B is Tim Wilcox of Sky, it's like she's always in the newsroom ready to anchor something only she doesn't do so many hours and shifts in the same day.
I hope they bring back old AL when Kay's back. Why did she complain about the island??
To be honest, to me the old AL set up at the elbow was better. I still don't understand why did they built this island like they did. They can't use it like they did with the old elbow, they have to put that round glass table there and it looks bad.
So Anna B is effectively doing 9am-2pm today? A fairly demanding shift to say the least but I suppose the same as what Steve does on a weekend evening.
Delving into the merky world of rota talk for a minute, but with saving cash a priority for most news organisations, I wonder if by the time contracts are up for renewal whether the bosses will be so willing to sign up presenters on a four-day week, especially the lesser names.
So Anna B is effectively doing 9am-2pm today? A fairly demanding shift to say the least but I suppose the same as what Steve does on a weekend evening.
Andrew Wilson has taken over for the 1pm Live Desk.
Looks like Sky are listening. Afternoon Live using the set a bit more today. Colin did the coming up bit at the newswall and just now they did a feature about electronic waste at the sofa area with environment correspondent Catherine Jacob. I notice they tend to give her quite a meaty role which is nice to see, often doing newswall pieces etc.