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 end of an era…

Earlier tonight, viewers across the UK saw a true news broadcasting legend, end his near 30-year association, with ITV News at Ten.

ITV Newscaster Alastair Stewart, has been a part of News at Ten since he most famously anchored the programme LIVE, during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Since then, he has covered some of the world’s biggest news stories, including the Gulf War, a number of Budget specials (since 1992), and ITV’s General Election coverage (up until 2010).

Back in June 2015, it was announced that ITV/ITN bosses would be changing the award winning presenting line-up on ITV News. The biggest change announced, was that Political Editor Tom Bradby would become the sole anchor of ITV News at Ten, replacing Mark Austin and Julie Etchingham. Mark would move to the ITV News at 18:30 to present alongside Mary Nightingale, replacing Alastair Stewart as the main anchor. Julie would present News at Ten on a Friday, and Alastair would move to the ITV News at 1.30, presenting three times per week.

The announcement came as huge shock, especially as Mark Austin had just won the award for ‘Newscaster of the Year’, in February 2015. As news of the change sank in, it became increasingly clear Alastair’s association with News at Ten was coming to an end, and sadly tonight (Friday 09/10/2015), it did.

So, why did bosses decide to change the presenting line-up? According to ITV News editor Geoff Hill: ”it signals the start of an exciting new chapter for ITV News”, and with increasing competition from BBC News at Ten, as well as online news organisations, bosses felt they needed to revamp the programme, in order for it to stay ‘fresh’, and compete with other news providers.

Mark Austin presented his final News at Ten on Thursday 08/10/2015, after 8 years as main anchor of the programme, and even though Alastair was the main relief newscaster, it’s his association with the programme, that will be sorely missed.

Mark Austin presented his final News at Ten on 8/10/15. Credit: ITN.

ITV News and Alastair in particular, have been a true inspiration to me over the years. His professionalism, authority, knowledge and passion for news, is one of the main reasons I began my career in journalism. If I come even an inch close to the career he has had, I would be an extremely happy man.

As I expected, his final NAT close was ‘low key’, but as Alastair has said previously: ”it’s the news that’s the star. We’re simply lucky enough to be asked to write it, and read it.”

Personally, it has been a true honour for me to watch him present the worlds most iconic news programme, for over a decade. He will be truly missed by me (and a few others too), and I wish him luck with his ‘new’ role on ITV News at 1.30.

Alastair Stewart closes his final NAT, presenting alongisde Natasha Kaplinsky.

Will he, won’t he…

UPDATED.

YOU might not know this, but there’s an election happening in May, and in the run-up to it, the main party leaders will take part in TV election debates. But, over the past week they have been thrown into disarray. Let me tell you why…

During the campaign of 2010, the leaders of the three main political parties – Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats, all took part in a three-way television debate, in which they answered questions from the public about economic, health and social issues. The debates screened on the BBC, ITV and Sky News were watched by over 22 million viewers, and were seen as a huge success.

Fast forward to late 2014, and the three main broadcasters, now joined by Channel 4, announced their plans for the upcoming General Election – including a return of the TV debates. The BBC and ITV announced their debates would feature the leaders of the Conservative, Labour & Liberal Democrats, although the latter would include UKIP leader Nigel Farage. The third and final debate to air on Channel 4/Sky News would be a head-to-head between David Cameron and Ed Miliband. The debates would take place, every 2 weeks from April 2nd, and continue on April 16th, and end on April 30th – exactly one week before polling day.

Controversy…

When the plans were announced, The Green Party expressed their disappointment at being excluded, and demanded to be included. Their demand was rejected, and the party launched an online petition which gained over 275,000 signatures, and saw a huge surge in membership. The campaign led to the BBC and ITV announcing plans for a seven-way debate, featuring leaders from the UK’s seven main political parties, including the Tories, Labour, Lib Dems, the Greens, UKIP, the SNP and Plaid Cymru. The Greens accepted the new proposals, and congratulated the broadcasters for listening to them.

The first debate is due to take place on Thursday April 2nd on ITV, hosted by ITV News presenter Julie Etchingham; the next on BBC One would air on April 16th, hosted by David Dimbleby; the third and final debate to air on Sky News, would take place on April 30th and be chaired by Jeremy Paxman, with the aftermath hosted by Kay Burley.

However, a few days after the plans were confirmed, the PM announced that he would only take part in ONE of the proposed debates, because he thinks the debates are a waste of his time, specifically if they’re held during the election campaign. Instead, Mr Cameron has held the broadcasters to ”ransom”, by proposing a 90 minute debate with the 6 remaining political leaders, if it is held on Thursday, March 26th – 4 days before campaigning starts.

But, his actions have been criticised by politicians, political commentators, and voters for trying to ”derail the democratic process”, and has even been accused of ”running scared” from the Labour Party, and has been called ”a chicken” by Labour leader Ed Miliband.

The broadcasters have since announced that the debates will still be go ahead, and they’ll be ”empty chairing” the PM, if he doesn’t show up.

But, what do the public think about the debates?

Well, a new poll released by the Sunday Times, shows support for the debates at 69%, but asked if they think a different format should be considered, 21% said it should. Asked if there should be a head-to-head debate between Cameron and Miliband, 42% are in favour, and 42% are against it.

But asked, who the public think are to blame for the breakdown in talks between the broadcasters and political leaders, it’s not good reading for Cameron – over 40% blame the PM for his ”disgraceful” actions, whilst 13% blame the broadcasters.

Today (11/3/15), makes further grim reading for the PM. A new poll released by ComRes for ITV News shows, 64% of voters believe the PM has ”damaged his reputation”, over his refusal to take part, and his ignorance to even answer questions about the debates. Also today, a new digital debate was put forward by Youtube, the Daily Telegraph & The Guardian, which would take place on Monday, March 23rd – which is what the PM wants.

With the pressure from politicians, and now voters anger increasing everyday, will the PM do the right thing, and finally agree to take part in all 3 of the proposed TV debates? Well it remains to be seen whether he’ll give in, or remain ignorant when questioned on the subject.

Whatever happens between now and April 2nd, there is no denying, it will certainly be interesting!