Newsnight
Encyclopedia
Newsnight is a BBC Television
current affairs
programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman
has been its main presenter for over two decades.
Several of the programme's editors over the years have gone on to senior positions within the BBC and elsewhere. Paxman's fellow presenters are Gavin Esler
, Kirsty Wark
and Emily Maitlis
. Newsnight has been broadcast on BBC Two
since 1980. It goes out on weekday evenings between 10:30pm and 11:20pm. Occasionally it may have an extended edition if there is an especially eventful event in the news - as happened on July 7 2011, when closure of the News of the World
led to an extended version which went on until 11:35 pm. Recordings are available within the UK via the BBC website. A weekly 26-minute digest edition of Newsnight is screened on the corporation's international channel, BBC World News.
Newsnight in its current format began on 30 January 1980, although a shorter news bulletin of the same name had run in its late-night BBC2 slot during the 1970s. Its launch was delayed for four months by the Association of Broadcasting Staff
, at the time the main BBC trade union. Newsnight was the first programme to be made by means of a direct collaboration between BBC News, then at Television Centre
, and the current affairs department, based some distance away at the Lime Grove Studios
. Staff feared job cuts.
Former presenters include Peter Snow
, a regular for 17 years, Donald MacCormick
, Charles Wheeler
, Adam Raphael
and John Tusa
, later boss of the BBC World Service
. In the early days each edition had an auxiliary presenter, a phenomenon pejoratively known at the time as the "Newsnight's wife syndrome." It was her job (it was usually a she) to read the news headlines and to introduce minor items. This was the most visible symptom of the dual origin of programme content in two separate BBC departments. Olivia O'Leary
in 1985 became the first female presenter in the strict sense. Editions of the programme have had one single presenter since 1987. Newsnight is today wholly managed under the aegis of BBC News
.
Until 1988, the start time of Newsnight was flexible, so BBC2 could screen a movie at 9:30pm to dovetail with the conclusion of the main news on BBC1. The fixed time slot of 10:30pm was established in the face of fierce objections from the then managing director of BBC TV, Bill Cotton
, otherwise in charge of all scheduling decisions. The very announcement was made without his even being informed. The affair sparked a widely reported row within the corporation. One protagonist said it would "destroy the BBC".
From Monday to Thursday on BBC Two Scotland the offshoot, Newsnight Scotland
, presented by Gordon Brewer
, replaces the final twenty minutes of the UK programme.
Newsnights signature tune
was composed by George Fenton
. Various arrangements have been used over the years.
On 13 May 1997 there occurred what became the programme's most notorious interview. Paxman pressed Michael Howard
, Home Secretary
, about a meeting with Derek Lewis, head of the Prison Service
, about the possible dismissal of the governor of Parkhurst Prison
. Faced with what he considered evasive answers, Paxman put the same question– "Did you threaten to overrule him?" (i.e. Lewis)– twelve times in succession. Later, during a twentieth anniversary edition of Newsnight, Paxman told Howard that he'd simply been trying desperately to string out the interview because the next item in the running order had failed to materialize. In 2004 Paxman raised the subject again with Howard, by then leader of the Conservative Party
. This time, Howard laughed it off, saying that he had not threatened to overrule the head of the Prison Service.
ruled that Newsnight's coverage of Peter Mandelson
's resignation over the Hinduja affair had been politically biased. The governors criticised the programme for only featuring Labour Party
supporters on the panel discussing the issue, and no opposition politicians appeared at any stage of the 45 minute episode. The broadcast attracted an outcry in the media with one critic describing it as a whitewash worthy of a "one-party state".
was the programme's main presenter in its Late Review incarnation, which began life as a strand of The Late Show. He continued to chair the panel of guest reviewers when it reincarnated as Newsnight Review in 2000, up until December 2005. The programme has been presented by Kirsty Wark
, Martha Kearney
, John Wilson
, Tim Marlow
, Kwame Kwei-Armah
and Hardeep Singh Kohli
. Regular reviewers have included Mark Kermode
, Tom Paulin
, Ekow Eshun
and Germaine Greer
.
As part of the BBC's commitment to moving programmes out of London, Newsnight Review finished on 18 December 2009 with a special hour-long edition. The programme has been replaced by The Review Show
, produced from Glasgow, which started on 22 January 2010. It has the same producer as Newsnight Review and is still presented by Kirsty Wark
and Martha Kearney
.
, replaced it with a 30-second weather report, arguing that the market data was available on the internet and that a weather report would be more useful. The change provoked a flurry of complaints.
Paxman on one occasion adopted a sarcastic tone and announced: "So finally and controversially, tomorrow's weather forecast. It's a veritable smorgasbord. Sun, rain, thunder, hail, snow, cold, wind. Almost worth going to work." On other occasions: "It's April, what do you expect?" and, "Take an umbrella with you tomorrow." He claimed, nonetheless, that he was happy presenting the weather. Gavin Esler also joined in, announcing: "As for the spring, you can forget about that until further notice." The programme conducted a telephone poll. Michael Fish
, a former weather forecaster, was seen arguing in favour of the weather report, while Norman Lamont, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer
, argued for the market update. 62% of viewers voted in favour of the markets, and the update duly returned on Monday 18 April 2005.
Other stunts include: for a week at the end of January 2006, Newsnight played over its closing credits the so-called Radio 4 UK Theme
which was facing the axe; the 24 April 2006 edition played out to the signature tune of the soon-to-be-axed BBC sports programme, Grandstand
.
Between January and June 2006 the programme included Gordaq, a spoof Stock Exchange
index measuring the political performance of Chancellor of the Exchequer
Gordon Brown
. The index started at 100 and moved up or down depending on Brown's political situation, finishing at 101 on 30 June 2006.
on BBC iPlayer
for up to seven days after broadcast. It can be found on the Newsnight website or via a search for "Newsnight" on the BBC iPlayer. A weekly digest version of Newsnight is screened on the corporation's international news channel, BBC World News.
BBC America
axed its US version of Newsnight as part of a series of changes that included dropping its daily three-hour block of international news. The BBC's commercial US channel, which is available in more than 63 million American homes via digital, cable and satellite, in the spring of 2009, dropped its daily simulcast from the BBC World News channel, which aired between 6am and 9am, because of disappointing ratings. It reinstated the three-hour block due to customer demand, and later expanded it to four hours. The special edition of Newsnight, which featured a roundup of the best stories from the UK programme and was fronted by Paxman, was dropped in November 2008.
KCET
, a PBS affiliate in Los Angeles
, broadcasts Newsnight and sponsors the programme for PBS stations throughout the US.
Occasionally the programme will be anchored by another presenter from BBC News. Examples have included Huw Edwards
, Eddie Mair
, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson
, Laura Kuenssberg
, Matt Frei
, Stephanie Flanders
. and Mishal Husain
.
Newsnight announced via twitter on the 21 November 2011 that Allegra Stratton
is to become the programmes Political Editor. Michael Crick
was the programme's political editor from April 2007 until his return to Channel 4 in the summer of 2011. Crick succeeded Martha Kearney
, also an intermittent presenter of the programme until her departure to present Radio Four's weekday lunchtime news programme The World At One
.
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
current affairs
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Paxman
Jeremy Dickson Paxman is a British journalist, author and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians...
has been its main presenter for over two decades.
Several of the programme's editors over the years have gone on to senior positions within the BBC and elsewhere. Paxman's fellow presenters are Gavin Esler
Gavin Esler
Gavin Esler is a Scottish author and BBC television presenter, currently one of the four main presenters on BBC Two's flagship political analysis programme, Newsnight.-Education:...
, Kirsty Wark
Kirsty Wark
Kirsteen Anne Wark is a British journalist and television presenter best known for fronting the BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight since 1993, and its weekly arts annexe Newsnight Review which is now relaunched as "The Review Show".-Biography:Wark was born in Dumfries to Jimmy...
and Emily Maitlis
Emily Maitlis
Emily Maitlis is a Canadian-born British journalist and newsreader, currently employed by the BBC.-Career:Raised in Sheffield, she was educated at the local King Edward VII School...
. Newsnight has been broadcast on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
since 1980. It goes out on weekday evenings between 10:30pm and 11:20pm. Occasionally it may have an extended edition if there is an especially eventful event in the news - as happened on July 7 2011, when closure of the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
led to an extended version which went on until 11:35 pm. Recordings are available within the UK via the BBC website. A weekly 26-minute digest edition of Newsnight is screened on the corporation's international channel, BBC World News.
History
Association of Broadcasting Staff
The Association of Broadcasting and Allied Staffs was a British broadcasting trade union.The organisation was founded in 1945 with the merger of the BBC Staff Association and the Association of BBC Engineers to form the BBC Staff Association...
, at the time the main BBC trade union. Newsnight was the first programme to be made by means of a direct collaboration between BBC News, then at Television Centre
BBC Television Centre
BBC Television Centre at White City in West London is the headquarters of BBC Television. Officially opened on 29 June 1960, it remains one of the largest to this day; having featured over the years as backdrop to many BBC programmes, it is one of the most readily recognisable such facilities...
, and the current affairs department, based some distance away at the Lime Grove Studios
Lime Grove Studios
Lime Grove Studios was a film studio complex built by the Gaumont Film Company in 1915 situated in a street named Lime Grove, inShepherd's Bush, west London, north of Hammersmith and described by Gaumont as "the finest studio in Great Britain and the first building ever put up in this country...
. Staff feared job cuts.
Former presenters include Peter Snow
Peter Snow
Peter Snow, CBE is a British television and radio presenter. He is the grandson of First World War general Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow, and cousin of Jon Snow, the main presenter of Channel 4 News, nephew of schoolmaster and bishop George D'Oyly Snow, and the brother-in-law of historian-writer Margaret...
, a regular for 17 years, Donald MacCormick
Donald MacCormick
Donald MacCormick was a Scottish broadcast journalist.MacCormick's father was a Glasgow teacher who died when Donald was six...
, Charles Wheeler
Charles Wheeler (journalist)
Sir Charles Cornelius Wheeler CMG was a British journalist and broadcaster. Having joined the BBC in 1947, he became the corporation's longest serving foreign correspondent, serving in the role until his death...
, Adam Raphael
Adam Raphael
Adam Eliot Geoffrey Raphael is an award-winning English journalist and author. In the British Press Awards of 1973, he was named Journalist of the Year for his work on labour conditions in South Africa, and he has also been a presenter and editor of BBC Television's Newsnight. Since 2004, he has...
and John Tusa
John Tusa
Sir John Tusa is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. From 1980 to 1986 he was a main presenter of BBC 2's Newsnight programme. From 1995 until 2007 he was managing director of the City of London's Barbican Arts Centre...
, later boss of the BBC World Service
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
. In the early days each edition had an auxiliary presenter, a phenomenon pejoratively known at the time as the "Newsnight's wife syndrome." It was her job (it was usually a she) to read the news headlines and to introduce minor items. This was the most visible symptom of the dual origin of programme content in two separate BBC departments. Olivia O'Leary
Olivia O'Leary
Olivia O'Leary is an Irish journalist, writer and current affairs presenter.Educated at St Leo's College, Carlow and at University College Dublin, she worked with the Nationalist and Leinster Times in Carlow...
in 1985 became the first female presenter in the strict sense. Editions of the programme have had one single presenter since 1987. Newsnight is today wholly managed under the aegis of BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
.
Until 1988, the start time of Newsnight was flexible, so BBC2 could screen a movie at 9:30pm to dovetail with the conclusion of the main news on BBC1. The fixed time slot of 10:30pm was established in the face of fierce objections from the then managing director of BBC TV, Bill Cotton
Bill Cotton
Sir William Frederick "Bill" Cotton, CBE was a British television producer and executive, and the son of big-band leader Billy Cotton....
, otherwise in charge of all scheduling decisions. The very announcement was made without his even being informed. The affair sparked a widely reported row within the corporation. One protagonist said it would "destroy the BBC".
From Monday to Thursday on BBC Two Scotland the offshoot, Newsnight Scotland
Newsnight Scotland
Newsnight Scotland is a BBC Scotland television news programme which started on Monday October 4, 1999. The programme is aired from BBC Pacific Quay in Glasgow, and is an opt out of the main London-based Newsnight programme...
, presented by Gordon Brewer
Gordon Brewer
Gordon Brewer is a Scottish news and current affairs broadcaster, currently working for BBC Scotland. He has presented the flagship Newsnight Scotland programme since 1999.-Education:Brewer was educated at the Voluntary Aided school St...
, replaces the final twenty minutes of the UK programme.
Newsnights signature tune
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
was composed by George Fenton
George Fenton
George Fenton is a British composer best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, although he also writes music for the theatre. His real name is George Howe but he is better known by his pseudonym of George Fenton.-Selected film and television credits:Fenton has composed...
. Various arrangements have been used over the years.
Interviews
Newsnight is one of the UK's most influential news programmes and often breaks major news stories.On 13 May 1997 there occurred what became the programme's most notorious interview. Paxman pressed Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
, Home Secretary
Home Secretary
The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
, about a meeting with Derek Lewis, head of the Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service
Her Majesty's Prison Service is a part of the National Offender Management Service of the Government of the United Kingdom tasked with managing most of the prisons within England and Wales...
, about the possible dismissal of the governor of Parkhurst Prison
Parkhurst (HM Prison)
HMP Isle of Wight - Parkhurst Barracks is a prison situated in Parkhurst on the Isle of Wight, operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.Parkhurst prison is one of the three prisons that make up HMP Isle of Wight, the other two being Camp Hill, and Albany...
. Faced with what he considered evasive answers, Paxman put the same question– "Did you threaten to overrule him?" (i.e. Lewis)– twelve times in succession. Later, during a twentieth anniversary edition of Newsnight, Paxman told Howard that he'd simply been trying desperately to string out the interview because the next item in the running order had failed to materialize. In 2004 Paxman raised the subject again with Howard, by then leader of the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
. This time, Howard laughed it off, saying that he had not threatened to overrule the head of the Prison Service.
Bias
In April 2001 the BBC's governorsBoard of Governors of the BBC
The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...
ruled that Newsnight's coverage of Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
's resignation over the Hinduja affair had been politically biased. The governors criticised the programme for only featuring Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
supporters on the panel discussing the issue, and no opposition politicians appeared at any stage of the 45 minute episode. The broadcast attracted an outcry in the media with one critic describing it as a whitewash worthy of a "one-party state".
Newsnight Review
From 2000 until December 2009, on Friday evenings Newsnight gave way at 11:00pm to Newsnight Review, a 35-minute consumer survey of the week's artistic and cultural highlights. Mark LawsonMark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.-Life and career:Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers...
was the programme's main presenter in its Late Review incarnation, which began life as a strand of The Late Show. He continued to chair the panel of guest reviewers when it reincarnated as Newsnight Review in 2000, up until December 2005. The programme has been presented by Kirsty Wark
Kirsty Wark
Kirsteen Anne Wark is a British journalist and television presenter best known for fronting the BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight since 1993, and its weekly arts annexe Newsnight Review which is now relaunched as "The Review Show".-Biography:Wark was born in Dumfries to Jimmy...
, Martha Kearney
Martha Kearney
Martha Catherine Kearney is an Irish-born British broadcaster and journalist. She is the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's lunchtime news programme The World at One.-Early life:...
, John Wilson
John Wilson (broadcaster)
John Richard Wilson is a British journalist and broadcaster. He is the son of Bob Wilson, former Arsenal goalkeeper and television sports presenter.- Life and career :...
, Tim Marlow
Tim Marlow
Tim Marlow is a British writer, broadcaster and art historian. He is best known for his regular feature on Channel Five - Tim Marlow on..., an occasional series in which he looks at current art exhibitions. He has also had several other art programs, radio programs and publications...
, Kwame Kwei-Armah
Kwame Kwei-Armah
Kwame Kwei-Armah, is a British actor, playwright, singer and broadcaster. In 2005 he became the second black Briton to have a play staged in the West End...
and Hardeep Singh Kohli
Hardeep Singh Kohli
Hardeep Singh Kohli is a British writer and radio and television presenter.-Background:Kohli was born in London and moved to Glasgow in Scotland when he was four. His parents came to the UK from India in the 1960s. The family's roots lie in the Punjab. His mother was a social worker, and his...
. Regular reviewers have included Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode
Mark Kermode is an English film critic, musician and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He contributes to Sight and Sound magazine, The Observer newspaper and BBC Radio 5 Live, where he presents Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews with Simon Mayo on Friday afternoons...
, Tom Paulin
Tom Paulin
Thomas Neilson Paulin is a Northern Irish poet and critic of film, music and literature. He lives in England, where he is the GM Young Lecturer in English Literature at Hertford College, Oxford.- Life and work :...
, Ekow Eshun
Ekow Eshun
Ekow Eshun is a British writer, journalist, and broadcaster. Until November 2010 he was the artistic director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, leaving before the end of his six month notice period. He is a contributor to BBC2's Friday night arts programme Newsnight Review and a...
and Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer
Germaine Greer is an Australian writer, academic, journalist and scholar of early modern English literature, widely regarded as one of the most significant feminist voices of the later 20th century....
.
As part of the BBC's commitment to moving programmes out of London, Newsnight Review finished on 18 December 2009 with a special hour-long edition. The programme has been replaced by The Review Show
The Review Show
The Review Show is a British discussion programme dedicated to the arts which airs on Friday evenings at 11:00pm on BBC Two. The programme features a panel of guests who review the week's developments in the world of the arts and culture.-Background:...
, produced from Glasgow, which started on 22 January 2010. It has the same producer as Newsnight Review and is still presented by Kirsty Wark
Kirsty Wark
Kirsteen Anne Wark is a British journalist and television presenter best known for fronting the BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight since 1993, and its weekly arts annexe Newsnight Review which is now relaunched as "The Review Show".-Biography:Wark was born in Dumfries to Jimmy...
and Martha Kearney
Martha Kearney
Martha Catherine Kearney is an Irish-born British broadcaster and journalist. She is the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's lunchtime news programme The World at One.-Early life:...
.
Frivolity
Traditionally, there is a short stock market update at the end of each edition. In 2005, Newsnight's then editor, Peter BarronPeter Barron
Peter Barron is Google's head of public relations for Britain, Ireland and the Benelux countries.Immediately prior to his appointment in 2008 the Belfast-born journalist had for four years been editor of the BBC programme Newsnight.-References:...
, replaced it with a 30-second weather report, arguing that the market data was available on the internet and that a weather report would be more useful. The change provoked a flurry of complaints.
Paxman on one occasion adopted a sarcastic tone and announced: "So finally and controversially, tomorrow's weather forecast. It's a veritable smorgasbord. Sun, rain, thunder, hail, snow, cold, wind. Almost worth going to work." On other occasions: "It's April, what do you expect?" and, "Take an umbrella with you tomorrow." He claimed, nonetheless, that he was happy presenting the weather. Gavin Esler also joined in, announcing: "As for the spring, you can forget about that until further notice." The programme conducted a telephone poll. Michael Fish
Michael Fish
Michael Fish MBE is a semi-retired British weather forecaster, best known for his BBC Weather television presentations, although he was actually employed by the Met Office....
, a former weather forecaster, was seen arguing in favour of the weather report, while Norman Lamont, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, argued for the market update. 62% of viewers voted in favour of the markets, and the update duly returned on Monday 18 April 2005.
Other stunts include: for a week at the end of January 2006, Newsnight played over its closing credits the so-called Radio 4 UK Theme
Radio 4 UK Theme
The BBC Radio 4 UK Theme is an orchestral arrangement of traditional British airs composed by Fritz Spiegl which was played every morning on BBC Radio 4 between 23 November 1978 and 23 April 2006....
which was facing the axe; the 24 April 2006 edition played out to the signature tune of the soon-to-be-axed BBC sports programme, Grandstand
Grandstand (BBC)
Grandstand was a British television sport programme. Broadcast between 1958 and 2007, it was one of the BBC's longest running sports shows, alongside BBC Sports Personality of the Year.Its first presenter was Peter Dimmock...
.
Between January and June 2006 the programme included Gordaq, a spoof Stock Exchange
Stock exchange
A stock exchange is an entity that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, and capital events including the payment of income and...
index measuring the political performance of Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
. The index started at 100 and moved up or down depending on Brown's political situation, finishing at 101 on 30 June 2006.
International edition and other media
Newsnight is available within the UK via broadbandBroadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
on BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
for up to seven days after broadcast. It can be found on the Newsnight website or via a search for "Newsnight" on the BBC iPlayer. A weekly digest version of Newsnight is screened on the corporation's international news channel, BBC World News.
BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
axed its US version of Newsnight as part of a series of changes that included dropping its daily three-hour block of international news. The BBC's commercial US channel, which is available in more than 63 million American homes via digital, cable and satellite, in the spring of 2009, dropped its daily simulcast from the BBC World News channel, which aired between 6am and 9am, because of disappointing ratings. It reinstated the three-hour block due to customer demand, and later expanded it to four hours. The special edition of Newsnight, which featured a roundup of the best stories from the UK programme and was fronted by Paxman, was dropped in November 2008.
KCET
KCET
KCET, channel 28, is an independent, non-commercial public television station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KCET's studio is located on West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is atop Mount Wilson. Al Jerome is the current CEO and President, serving since 1996.KCET was...
, a PBS affiliate in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, broadcasts Newsnight and sponsors the programme for PBS stations throughout the US.
Current presenters
- Jeremy PaxmanJeremy PaxmanJeremy Dickson Paxman is a British journalist, author and television presenter. He has worked for the BBC since 1977. He is noted for a forthright and abrasive interviewing style, particularly when interrogating politicians...
- from 1989 - Kirsty WarkKirsty WarkKirsteen Anne Wark is a British journalist and television presenter best known for fronting the BBC Two's news and current affairs programme Newsnight since 1993, and its weekly arts annexe Newsnight Review which is now relaunched as "The Review Show".-Biography:Wark was born in Dumfries to Jimmy...
- from October 1993 - Gavin EslerGavin EslerGavin Esler is a Scottish author and BBC television presenter, currently one of the four main presenters on BBC Two's flagship political analysis programme, Newsnight.-Education:...
- from January 2003 - Emily MaitlisEmily MaitlisEmily Maitlis is a Canadian-born British journalist and newsreader, currently employed by the BBC.-Career:Raised in Sheffield, she was educated at the local King Edward VII School...
- from March 2006
Occasionally the programme will be anchored by another presenter from BBC News. Examples have included Huw Edwards
Huw Edwards (journalist)
Huw Edwards is a BAFTA award-winning Welsh journalist, presenter and newsreader.He is a news presenter for BBC News in the United Kingdom. Edwards presents Britain's most watched news programme, BBC News at Ten, which is also the corporation's flagship news broadcast...
, Eddie Mair
Eddie Mair
Eddie Mair is a British BBC radio and television presenter. He presents BBC Radio 4's daily news magazine PM also the Radio 4 Saturday only iPM and the BBC's NewsPod, is an occasional presenter of Newsnight, the stand-in presenter for Any Questions replacing the late Nick Clarke, and was the...
, Jon Sopel, Nick Robinson
Nick Robinson
Nicholas Anthony "Nick" Robinson is a British journalist and political editor for the BBC. Robinson was interested in politics from a young age, and went on to study a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics degree at Oxford University, where he was also President of the Oxford University Conservative...
, Laura Kuenssberg
Laura Kuenssberg
Laura Kuenssberg is a Scottish journalist, currently working as the Business Editor for ITV News.-Early life:The daughter of Scottish businessman Professor Nick Kuenssberg OBE, and his wife Sally Kuenssberg CBE, her paternal grandfather was German-born Dr. Ekke von Kuenssberg, a founder and...
, Matt Frei
Matt Frei
Matthias Frei better known as Matt Frei is a German-born British television news journalist and writer, presently the Washington, D.C. correspondent for Channel 4 News.-Personal life:...
, Stephanie Flanders
Stephanie Flanders
Stephanie Hope Flanders, born 5 August 1968, is a British broadcast journalist, and is currently the BBC economics editor.She is the daughter of British actor and comic singer Michael Flanders and Claudia Cockburn.-Early life:...
. and Mishal Husain
Mishal Husain
Mishal Husain is a television news presenter for the BBC's international news channel, BBC World News, presenting Impact between 1400 and 1600 GMT every Monday to Thursday as well as presenting the Sunday evening editions of the BBC Weekend News on BBC One...
.
Newsnight announced via twitter on the 21 November 2011 that Allegra Stratton
Allegra Stratton
Allegra Stratton is a political correspondent for The Guardian in London. She was appointed the political editor of BBC2's Newsnight programme on 21 November 2011.She attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where she read archaeology and anthropology...
is to become the programmes Political Editor. Michael Crick
Michael Crick
Michael Crick is a British journalist, author and broadcaster. Crick was a founding member of the Channel 4 News Team in 1982. He worked on the BBC's Newsnight between 1992 and 2011, acting as the programme's political editor from 2007 to his departure...
was the programme's political editor from April 2007 until his return to Channel 4 in the summer of 2011. Crick succeeded Martha Kearney
Martha Kearney
Martha Catherine Kearney is an Irish-born British broadcaster and journalist. She is the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's lunchtime news programme The World at One.-Early life:...
, also an intermittent presenter of the programme until her departure to present Radio Four's weekday lunchtime news programme The World At One
The World At One
The World at One, or WATO for short, is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs programme, which is broadcast from 1pm to 1:30pm from Monday to Friday. The programme describes itself as "Britain's leading political programme. With a reputation for rigorous and original...
.
Past presenters
- Peter SnowPeter SnowPeter Snow, CBE is a British television and radio presenter. He is the grandson of First World War general Sir Thomas D'Oyly Snow, and cousin of Jon Snow, the main presenter of Channel 4 News, nephew of schoolmaster and bishop George D'Oyly Snow, and the brother-in-law of historian-writer Margaret...
, 30 January 1980 – 3 July 1997 - John TusaJohn TusaSir John Tusa is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. From 1980 to 1986 he was a main presenter of BBC 2's Newsnight programme. From 1995 until 2007 he was managing director of the City of London's Barbican Arts Centre...
, January 1980 – 5 June 1986 - Peter Hobday, 1980–1983
- Olivia O'LearyOlivia O'LearyOlivia O'Leary is an Irish journalist, writer and current affairs presenter.Educated at St Leo's College, Carlow and at University College Dublin, she worked with the Nationalist and Leinster Times in Carlow...
, 17 June 1985 – 26 September 1986 - Adam RaphaelAdam RaphaelAdam Eliot Geoffrey Raphael is an award-winning English journalist and author. In the British Press Awards of 1973, he was named Journalist of the Year for his work on labour conditions in South Africa, and he has also been a presenter and editor of BBC Television's Newsnight. Since 2004, he has...
, 1987–1988 - Gordon BrewerGordon BrewerGordon Brewer is a Scottish news and current affairs broadcaster, currently working for BBC Scotland. He has presented the flagship Newsnight Scotland programme since 1999.-Education:Brewer was educated at the Voluntary Aided school St...
, 1993–1999, now hosts the Newsnight Scotland opt-out - Martha KearneyMartha KearneyMartha Catherine Kearney is an Irish-born British broadcaster and journalist. She is the main presenter of BBC Radio 4's lunchtime news programme The World at One.-Early life:...
1994-2010 - Sarah MontagueSarah MontagueSarah Montague is a British Journalist, best known for her work on BBC Radio 4 as one of the regular presenters of the Today programme.-Early life:...
, 1998–2001 - Sue Cameron
- James Cox
- Donald MacCormickDonald MacCormickDonald MacCormick was a Scottish broadcast journalist.MacCormick's father was a Glasgow teacher who died when Donald was six...
- Fran Morrison
- Francine StockFrancine StockFrancine Stock is a British radio and TV presenter and novelist, of part-French origin.-Early life:Born in Devon, and with early years in Edinburgh and Australia, Stock later attended St Catherine's School, Guildford, where she was head girl, and is a graduate of Jesus College, Oxford, with a...
- Charles WheelerCharles Wheeler (journalist)Sir Charles Cornelius Wheeler CMG was a British journalist and broadcaster. Having joined the BBC in 1947, he became the corporation's longest serving foreign correspondent, serving in the role until his death...
- Jeremy VineJeremy VineJeremy Guy Vine is a British author, journalist and news presenter for the BBC. He is known for his direct interview style and exclusive reporting from war-torn areas throughout Africa...
, 1999–2002
Newsnight editors
- George Carey (1980–1981)
- Ron NeilRon NeilRonald John Baillie Neil CBE is a former BBC television journalist and news editor, who rose to become the BBC's overall director of news and current affairs in the late 1980s...
(1981–1982) - David Lloyd (1982–1983)
- David Dickinson (1983–1985)
- Richard TaitRichard TaitProfessor Richard Tait CBE, is Director of the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University and a member of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation....
(1985–1987) - John Morrison (1987–1990)
- Tim GardamTim GardamTim Gardam MBE is a British journalist and educator.Gardam is the son of the novelist Jane Gardam. He studied at Westminster School and gained a double first in English from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He subsequently worked at the BBC , and as director of programmes at Channel 4...
(1990–1993) - Peter HorrocksPeter HorrocksPeter John Gibson Horrocks is Director of BBC World Service. He was educated at the independent King's College School in Wimbledon and at Christ's College, Cambridge....
(1994–1997) - Sian Kevill (1998–2001)
- George Entwistle (2001–2004)
- Peter BarronPeter BarronPeter Barron is Google's head of public relations for Britain, Ireland and the Benelux countries.Immediately prior to his appointment in 2008 the Belfast-born journalist had for four years been editor of the BBC programme Newsnight.-References:...
(2004–2008) - Peter Rippon (2008–present)
Footnotes
- Newsnight 25 BBC mini-site to mark Newsnight's 25th anniversary in 2005
- Newsnight at 20: the awkward squad, Broadcast, 28 January 2000
External links
- Paxarotti packs punch in Newsnight opera BBC News, 5 September 2003 - Newsnight: The Opera
- Newsnight weathers storm as forecast is axed The Guardian, 15 April 2005
- Newsnight blogs:
- Idle Scrawl BBC Blogs
- Michael Crick's blog BBC Blogs