The (old) ITV News Thread

HAHA!!

"Commercially viable" is a very good excuse...but not a viable argument.

Newsnight is commercially viable, but a "boring old bulletin" would die on BBC2.

My point: ITV News at Nine could be very viable if it was more newsnight and less boring old bulletin.

And why not?

Before the war the "News at When?" was dragged around the schedule like it didnt matter...so why ITV would want to go back to the way things were is beyond me.

Andrea Catherwood has just done a live report from Iraq but the camera caught her side-ways-on and ive never realised what a large hooted she possesses!

Please someone capture it the next time the report is repeated on the ITV NC

You will be surprised by the size of it!

Alistair Stewart has just presented the main news.............. discuss

Yes he's done all three bulletins today

What with James Mates and Andrea Catherwood in Bhagdad, there are non of the regulars available

Its a pitty ITV News can't keep hold of Alastair Stewart, surely they pay better than LNN?!

Yes, but at LNN, Alastair only has to do the half-hour main evening programme a couple of times a week, and not stay on screen for several-hour periods at a time, anchoring war coverage. Touch more demanding than Entertainment Tonight -- which is more-or-less what LT become after 5 minutes of murder news.

Plus the point is ITN can't afford to keep Alastair, Angela and Carol for longer than the war [is Carol still there?], and we've known that they'll be staying only for as long as the war is on, cos they're very expensive.

Carol Barnes is on the ITV NC right now anchoring the mind-numbingly repetitive and uninformative coverage of Jessica Lynch's homecoming.

She seems to do 4 or 5 evenings a week.

I bet they'll stay for a few weeks after the war to allow Mark Austin, Trevor, Andrea etc a few weeks off after their time abroad, plus John Suchet and Katie Derham may need a week or two off soon

In Trevor McDonald's case, bearing in mind he only usually does three days a week, he may just start his silly season holiday now and return in September!!

Trevor McDonald is a freeloader. He doesnt work to earn the position he has, and I think he takes it for granted. He does fairly little work compared to other Newscasters and seems to think that no matter what he does he will still be loved.

Anyone see James Mates hosting the Weekend News from Baghdad last night (9.15) and tonight (6.40). I know he is now one of the main Weekend anchors, but with Andrea Catherwood also in the city, and even live on the programme as a reporter last night, I can't understand why she is not anchoring them, as firstly, she is a better newsreader, and secondly, a more familar household name.

No News at Nine again tonight - is Trevor still in Kuwait?

Noooo, tut.
Andrea has to do the human interest story because she's a woman and she's allowed to cry on screen. See? Sending James Mates to visit the young lad Ali, wouldn't be nearly as heart-rendering, stiff British upper lip and all that crap. Andrea stroking his hair gets the audience thinking and stirring their compassion in a way James never could. So he sticks to the anchoring and she does the "compassion" stuff..

[/stereotype]

Nice to see Fiona Foster in the studio though -- it's like London Tonight right at the beginning again!
Hope she and Alastair bump into each other sometimes in the studios.

I think ITV / ITN have dropped News At Nine because the "War On Saddam" is coming to an end. I have a feeling that Trevor McDonald is coming back to the UK, because he hasn't been presenting recently.

I do like this "ITV News Locator" that they use on the ITV News Channel from time to time

Its mainly used on the Lunchtime News. Nicholas Owen refers to it as the "ever useful" or the "good old" or something like that.