A decade on…

As many of you may not know, next week (14 January) will see, ‘ITV News at Ten’ celebrate ten years since it was reinstated to the ITV schedule.

A little bit of history…

‘ITV News at Ten’ began as a 12-week experiment on 3 July 1967, presented then by Andrew Gardner and Sir Alastair Burnet. ITV schedulers at the time, wanted to trial the UK’s first half-hour news programme, but many ITV regional bosses weren’t in favour of it.

 

Original ‘News at Ten’ logo.

Newscasters, Andrew Gardner, Alastair Burnet

However, after its first week on air, the ITV executives were still not convinced the viewing public were interested in 30 minutes of hard-hitting news five nights per week, and immediately wanted the bulletin axed. But, Newscasters Gardner and Burnet fought back and asked for more time. By the summer of 1969, the programme was a huge success regularly attracting over 12 million viewers per night. In the words of Editor Nigel Ryan, ”we knew we were safe”.

‘News at Ten’ is credited with creating the ‘reporter package’ – placing the reporter in front of the camera, and having them standing on location reporting to the viewers back at home what was happening? And why?

The iconic programme also made stars out of its newscasters. Sir Alastair Burnet, Anna Ford, Julia Somerville, Alastair Stewart, and (probably the most famous of them all), Sir Trevor McDonald – all became household names and trusted – the viewers listened to every word they said.

Sir Trevor McDonald on the set of ‘News at Ten’.

‘News at Ten’ had become part of British culture, but in 1998, ITV announced it was to axe the bulletin to make way for ‘higher rated’ programmes, and because of the rise of online news and 24-hour news channels. This led to an outcry, with MPs even debating the issue in parliament, with Gerald Kaufman MP saying ITV were moving the popular bulletin purely ”for money”. ITV were given permission by the ITC (now Ofcom), to move the bulletin. It last aired on 5 March 1999.

In October 2007, then ITV Chairman, Michael Grade announced plans to reinstate ‘News at Ten’ to the TV schedules in January 2008. Grade, called the axing of the bulletin in 1999 a ”shocking mistake”, and the decision had ”damaged ITV more than anything else”.

The programme returned to ITV on 14 January 2008 with Sir Trevor McDonald lured out of retirement to present alongside Julie Etchingham (Mark Austin took over from Sir Trevor in October 2008). It had its own unique branding and studio, and the iconic ‘bongs’ and ‘And finally’, also made a return.

 

‘News at Ten’ logo 2008-2009.

Mark Austin, Julie Etchingham, Sir Trevor McDonald.

Over the years, the bulletin has changed; Trevor McDonald retired (again), it lost its independent identity and was realigned to match the current ITV News output, and ITV channel controllers even moved the bulletin to 22:30 for six weeks in early 2017, in order to trial the ‘Nightly Show’ (which failed miserably).

The current update to ‘News at Ten’ was launched in January 2016. Tom Bradby, took over presenting duties and the programme has taken on a less ‘formal’ approach, allowing for more discussion on important issues, more examination of the details and to expand the audiences knowledge. The studio also incorporated images of ‘Big Ben’ striking 10pm, and the theme tune incorporated elements of the original from 1967.

 

‘News at Ten’ logo.

‘News at Ten’ revamped studio.

Despite all the changes, ‘News at Ten’ has remained an important part of history and celebrated fifty years since its first bulletin aired in July 1967. The way in which people read or watch the news has changed so much since 1967, but the programme still manages to reach millions per week, and (fingers crossed) will continue to do so, for many more years to come.

Here’s to another fifty years!

The beginning of a new era…

A few months ago, I wrote an article about changes to the presenting line-up on ITV News, and specifically Alastair Stewart. Gratefully, over 9000 people read the article, and now here is the follow-up.

It’s been seven months since Tom Bradby (ITV’s former Political Editor), began presenting the revamped, ITV News at Ten.

ITV relaunched the iconic bulletin, airing a less ‘formal’ approach than that of BBC News at Ten. ITV’s approach is to have more discussion on the important issues, allowing more time for guests to examine the issues in more detail, and to expand the audiences knowledge of a particular subject.

When Tom took over presenting duties on Monday October 13th 2015, no distinct changes were made to the look of the bulletin – apart from the right ‘television wall’ being removed in order to create a more open-plan studio and setting. ITV wanted its audience to ‘warm’ to Tom and their new approach to the bulletin, before making any major changes.

Tom Bradby’s first ‘NaT’.

A few weeks after Tom took over, viewers were complaining that instead of being told about what’s happening around the world from an impartial point of view, they were instead hearing what Tom thought about the issues of the day. Plus, Tom’s awkward presenting style (which was probably down to first-time nerves), lead to viewers asking for the return of experienced presenters, Mark Austin and Julie Etchingham.

With ITV relaunching its iconic bulletin, it lead to a war of words between top BBC and ITV/ITN executives. The BBC accused ITV of running their 9pm programmes over-time, finishing after 10pm, in order for the audience to miss the headlines on the BBC, therefore forcing them to stay tuned to ITV News at Ten. ITV sources called the accusations ”nonsense”. But, the so called ‘battle of the bongs’ hasn’t just been between top executives, its also between the shows main presenters – BBC’s Huw Edwards and ITV’s Tom Bradby.

In many interviews ahead of his debut as presenter on News at Ten, Bradby accused the BBC of being ”too powerful”, and trying to put ITV News ”out of business”. Edwards hit back lauding the BBC’s superior viewing figures online – BBC’s 10pm bulletin regularly gains over 4 million viewers, ITV’s has around 2 million. Investing heavily in the bulletin, ITV persuaded many of the BBC’s top talent to defect to them – most notably Robert Peston (now ITV’s Political Editor), and Allegra Stratton (now ITV’s National Editor).

Huw Edwards – BBC

Tom Bradby – ITV

In January 2016, ITV relaunched ‘News at Ten’, with new opening titles, and tweaks to its virtual studio. The bulletins updated look incorporated images of ‘big ben’ striking 10pm (a nod to its iconic past), and images of the capital cities of the four provinces that make up the United Kingdom – Belfast (Northern Ireland), Cardiff (Wales), Edinburgh (Scotland), and London (England). The theme music was also updated to incorporate the chimes of ‘big ben’.

‘News at Ten’ logo.

‘News at Ten’ revamped studio.

Personally, its fantastic to see ITV investing money in one of televisions most historic, and iconic news bulletins. Since I was in my teens, ‘NAT’ has been of huge inspiration to me, and is one of the reasons why I studied journalism at University, and am working towards, to hopefully, one day, becoming a journalist. Its iconic stories have been influential across the globe, and its well-known faces (such as Alastair Burnett, Alastair Stewart and Sir Trevor McDonald), made us (the viewers), feel like we knew them personally.

It’s great to see ‘News at Ten’ return to its original look of incorporating ‘big ben’ striking 10pm, as well as incorporating the modern methods of today. The bulletin was famously axed in 1999, but returned in 2008 and has continued to the present day, and long may it be on our TV screens for years to come!