Sky News: Presenters & Rotas

There was mentioning it when info turned out to be correct, mentioning it when it turned out to be incorrect, and sometimes just mentioning it not allied to any particular information, so it did become quite annoying to read, not to mention (perhaps unintentionally) disrespectful to the people who might have thought their chats with Freddie were private.


In any case, it's not worth arguing over at this point, as Freddie and I have had our own private chat, and though it wouldn't be right to disclose what we said, we now appear to be on the same page. I certainly know he means well, and that's what matters most.

Christmas filler schedule seems to be in full swing, with Johnathan Samuels and Rebecca Williams presenting sunrise this morning

Followed by Niall and then Claudia taking over just before 2.30pm.

Claudia had a remarkable transformation between 4.56pm and 5.00pm!

Stephen and Gillian back together on Sunrise and in fine form. They're the best.

I reckon it will be a constant duo whilst Isabel is on maternity leave.

Sky could do with another female presenter with Claudia leaving as well unless Sarah Hewson is back very soon as There's not much female cover for Sunrise/Jayne.

Alternatively they could use Kimberley, Sam Naz and Rebecca more as cover for Sarah/Gillian/Jayne and have them do less overnight/weekend solo cover shifts.

This would allow the likes of Adele and the others we've seen tried out overnight to then back-fill for the off-peak shifts which I reckon might be the most likely scenario.

Sarah is back very soon. I would like to see more correspondents and editors like Adele and Beth to cover, and also have some of the overnight presenters covering more such as Kimberly and Eric. I would say that they're wasted on overnights but bearing in mind that Sky News is international, they probably need an ok presenter such as Kimberly from 0000-0600

Don't forget... correspondent work and studio presenting are two very different skill-sets. Some people can do both, but of those who don't, the vast majority have no desire to do any presenting. (Oh, and Eric was bloody awful... hence why he didn't last long.)

I didn't know that Eric had left. I suppose you're right, but there have been instances in which correspondents have turned out to be very good presenters (Niall Paterson). I'd say that Nick and Kimberly are very good presenters, and that although overnights need good presenters overnight because of the international aspects, it would be good to see more of them during the UK day.

I didn't like Eric at all, sure he's a nice enough guy but his delivery style really didn't suit overnights and was too in your face and loud and distracting for me - Often used to make me want to switch off after the press preview in a way the others didn't. I don't rate Kimberley but she's better than Eric and okay as occasional cover in a two.

The depth of female presenters is not anywhere near as strong as it used to be - for male cover you have Gamal, Tom and Niall, all of which who can really hold their own whether that's in a two, doing a prime time shift, press preview, or going solo. I'm not so sure you can say the same about Sam, Rebecca and Kimberley.

Bear in mind that there are some slots where it will always be one male and one female and the fact Gillian has been shifted back to Sunrise I would say is partly because of the fact she gets on well with Stephen and party because I don't think replacing Isabel for 9 months with one of Sam, Rebecca or Kimberley and having the other two as relief would work so well.

It's ironic however that Claudia is leaving just as she probably would have got a few more shifts!

Yes, however I think having a permanent deal in a prime time show on a respected channel beats freelancing and covering for BBC London and Sky News. In my opinion, they should've offered her sunrise when they first knew about Isabel

Oh for sure I think that it is a great opportunity for her - I would have took it if I was her too.

She's always come across well on Sunrise for me and I think she's really well suited to that program - I just really feel the cupboard is bare for relief female presenters now - the ones who are there might be alright for overnight shows and off-peak hours but I see them no better than that.

Be interesting to see what happens with Gillian's old solo shift and also if Sarah Hewson will return to her old shift when she comes back.