Ratings show that the BBC's flagship current affairs show isn't ailing ? but it does need more light to go with all that hot air
Be fair to Newsnight. It isn't quite the shrivelling news analysis programme its critics portray. Look at viewing figures for the last two weeks and they average some 785,000 per show ? but oscillating pretty wildly between 1.1 million on the Thursday before the August bank holiday to 636,000 last Tuesday. Even steam radio's enduring Today programme falls within that range.
"We don't seek to deny that Newsnight faces some challenges ? in common with the rest of the news media ? but talk of its demise is greatly exaggerated. It is and will remain a key brand for BBC News," says the corporation, a touch dourly. Quite right. But permanence, in the sense that BBC1 and BBC2 together have to have at least one topical news show somewhere in their evening public service mix, is surely obvious going on mandatory. And Newsnight, under whatever name, must sail on.
The question isn't whether it's doomed. It isn't. Rather whether it could be improved. And maybe that Tuesday 636,000 figure ? with Michael Wolff of Murdoch biography fame shouting insults at some faraway bemused Texan investor in News International ? is almost emblematic of the current problem. Not he-said-she-said studio discussions of a predictable nature, but he-snarled-she-snarled confrontations with inter-round groans from Paxo. Much heat, little light.
What could really pep things up? A luminous presenting turn over the summer from Mishal Husain gave one clue. The non-Manchester transfer of Sian Williams from Breakfast Time gives another. BBC News is chock full of brilliant but under-used women, most of them doomed to double up with men in suits for ritual nodding and joshing purposes. Newsnight with Mishal and Sian, Stephanie and Martha, Zeinab and Bridget, Emily and Kirsty? It sounds like a wake-up call for an audience too close to dozing off.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/11/newsnight-neednt-be-snoozenight
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