Newsnight
Newsnight is the BBC's news and current affairs television programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. It is broadcast weeknights at 10:30 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel; it is also available on BBC iPlayer. The programme is currently presented by Victoria Derbyshire, Paddy O'Connell and Matt Chorley.
History
Newsnight began on 28 January 1980 at 22:45, although a 15minute news bulletin using the same title had run on BBC2 for a 13month period from 1975 to 1976. Its planned September1979 launch date was delayed by 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 a short distance away at the now defunct Lime Grove Studios. Staff feared job cuts. The newscast also served as a replacement for the current affairs programme Tonight.Former presenters include Jeremy Paxman, Peter Snow, 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". Usually a woman, it was her job to read the news headlines and to introduce minor items. Olivia O'Leary in 1985 became the first principal female presenter; the programme has had a single presenter since 1987. The program is now wholly managed by BBC News.
Until 1988 the start time of Newsnight was flexible, enabling BBC2 to screen a full-length movie at 21:30 to dovetail with the end of the Nine O'Clock News on BBC1. However, BBC News and Current Affairs, then controlled by John Birt, wanted a fixed start time for Newsnight at 22:30 so that viewers would always know when it was on. The managing director of BBC Television, Bill Cotton, who was responsible for all TV scheduling, strongly opposed Birt's campaign, fearing it would severely restrict his scheduling freedom. But Birt persuaded the BBC director general, Michael Checkland, to back the change - which Checkland then announced at a press conference without warning Cotton, who was in the audience. Cotton fought a fierce campaign inside and outside the BBC to reverse the decision - so fierce that one protagonist said it would "destroy the BBC". but the move to a fixed start time took place on 31 October 1988 and is still in place.
Between 1999 and 2014 on BBC Two Scotland the offshoot, Newsnight Scotland, presented by Gordon Brewer, replaced the final twenty minutes of the UK programme from Monday to Friday. From May 2014, Newsnight has again been shown in full in Scotland, although delayed by half an hour to accommodate Newsnight Scotlands replacement, Scotland 2014. In more recent years, Scottish viewers have seen the full edition of the show without a separate programme. The flagship news programmes for BBC Scotland are now shown on their separate channel.
Newsnight moved to new facilities at Broadcasting House on 15 October 2012.
In 2020, Newsnight won the Royal Television Society's Daily News Programme of the Year award. It was succeeded in 2021 by the ITV News at Ten.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsnight reverted to a 22:45 start time from 30 March 2020. This was due to Newsnight temporarily sharing a studio with the BBC News at Ten during the pandemic, to cut footfall in Broadcasting House and allow turnover in the studio, with the News at Ten not finishing until 22:35. Further, during the pandemic, some editions presented by Kirsty Wark were presented from BBC Scotland's Pacific Quay headquarters in Glasgow. However, Wark still travelled to London during weeks she presented more episodes of the show.
In October 2020 the show moved to a new studio, but continued to broadcast from 22:45. It returned to the 22:30 slot in May 2021.
Newsnights signature tune was composed by George Fenton. Various arrangements have been used over the years.
There has been much debate over the role and format of Newsnight. In 2018 a former Newsnight editor, John Morrison, wrote in Radio Times that the gap Newsnight once filled had now largely been filled by other programmes earlier in the day. The BBC, he said, had failed to come up with a replacement. The Corporation's plan now, he suggested, was simply to "starve Newsnight of resources and eventually it will just fade away." To ensure its survival, he suggested, among other changes, cutting the programme length from 45 to 30 minutes and "beefing up the interview booking desk." On 29 November 2023, it was announced that Newsnight would be revamped as a 30-minute "interview, debate and discussion" programme, ditching its special reporting team. Jobs within the programme were to be slashed by more than half, from 57 to 23. The new format was launched on 28 May 2024.
On 1 September 2025, a new drone sequence was introduced, showcasing a number of exterior shots of BBC's New Broadcasting House, which replaced the still "live" shot which was used prior.
Viewing figures
The programme's average audience in 2015 was 579,000, compared to 867,000 in 2008.The average audience was 344,000 in September 2018 and by August 2020 around 300,000.
In January 2020 Victoria Derbyshire said Newsnight's audience figures were 297,000.
The new format has been deemed a success with more than 1 million people watching the 28 February 2025 episode. The programme attracts a third more viewers than it had done pre-reforms to the format with an average of 500,000 viewers over a week-long period.
Notable interviews
Jeremy Paxman interviews Michael Howard
In May 1997, Jeremy Paxman pressed former Home Secretary Michael Howard about a meeting with head of the Prison Service Derek Lewis 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?" – to Howard twelve times in succession.This has become one of the programme's best known interviews. Later, during the twentieth anniversary edition of Newsnight, Paxman told Howard that he had simply been trying to prolong the interview because the next item in the running order was not ready. In 2004, Paxman raised the subject again with Howard, by then leader of the Conservative Party to get a final answer. This time, Howard laughed it off, saying that he had not threatened to overrule the head of the Prison Service. During Paxman's final show in June 2014, Howard briefly appeared in the studio once more, with Paxman simply asking "Did you?", to which Howard replied "No, Jeremy, I didn't, but feel free to ask another 11 times."
Emily Maitlis interviews Prince Andrew, Duke of York
In November 2019, Emily Maitlis interviewed the then Prince Andrew, Duke of York about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in August 2019 whilst awaiting trial. The interview had taken months to prepare and Maitlis received approval only 48 hours before the scheduled airdate.In the interview, the Duke of York denied having sex with Virginia Giuffre in March 2001, as she had accused, because he had been at home with his daughters, having taken his elder daughter, Beatrice, to a party at PizzaExpress in Woking. The Duke said that he had "no recollection of ever meeting" Giuffre and that he had "absolutely no memory" of a photograph taken of him with Giuffre at Ghislaine Maxwell's house. He said he had investigations carried out to establish whether the photograph was faked, but they had been "inconclusive".
Mountbatten Windsor's responses in the interview received negative reactions from both the media and the public. Maitlis won the Network Presenter of the Year award at the RTS Television Journalism Awards in 2020, and the interview was given awards for Interview of the Year and Scoop of the Year.
The interview and events surrounding it have twice been dramatised. In 2024 Netflix released Scoop, and in the same year Prime Video released a three-part mini-series, A Very Royal Scandal.
Accusations of bias
In April 2001, the BBC's Board of Governors ruled that Newsnight's coverage of Peter Mandelson's resignation over the Hinduja affair had been politically biased. The governors criticised the programme for featuring only Labour Party supporters on the panel discussing the issue, and for not including opposition politicians in the coverage. The broadcast caused an outcry in the media. One critic described it as a "whitewash worthy of a one-party state".The BBC judged Emily Maitlis to have broken BBC rules on impartiality in the introduction to the 26 May 2020 edition, when she said "the country can see" that Dominic Cummings had "broken the rules." As a result, she said, the public mood was "one of fury, contempt and anguish." The BBC said that while the programme contained "fair, reasonable and rigorous journalism", it was "not made clear" that the remarks referred to questions to be examined in the rest of the programme.
When Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019 his ministers generally refused invitations to appear on the programme. This resulted in Newsnight presenters stating on an almost nightly basis that the government had been asked to appear but that "no one was available" or that they had declined outright. On 12 January 2022, Jacob Rees-Mogg made a rare government appearance on the programme to defend the government's position on "lockdown parties" at 10 Downing Street which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mogg referred to Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross as "quite a lightweight figure".