ITV News

I’m surprised they even are, I half expected them to not to return to double headed bulletins, I think one person presenting works just fine. London and Wales are already single headed and while I never like to see job cuts in journalism, cost saving is a way of life especially in the wake of the pandemic and advertising revenues.

Yes, I never understood why they need 2 newsreaders these days. Taking it in turns to read a sentence.
Seems old fashioned, especially because the national BBC and ITV bulletins only have one.

The desk design might make that look quite awkward I'd have thought. Also be interesting and sad to see what happens with Granada Reports - I suspect they may stick with one host for the time being.

So the BBC News threads complain that they are axing double headed regional bulletins, and then the ITV News thread has complaints that they are keeping double headed bulletins. You can't make it up.

The thing is, double headers are what make regional shows popular. It adds warmth and facilitates the fluffier content.

Some programmes manage it. Having one newsreader in London for example, is the epitome of London, where nobody speaks and everything is one big rush (I do love London)

Single headed Northwest Tonight worked too but they used Dianne and Tony well for the back end of the programme and Gordon was very popular and well known .

Generally though, double headers on better on the regionals IMO.

Or... some people are in favour of double headed presentation and some are in favour of one presenter. I don’t think that opinion varies depending on the channel, does it?

I think it would be a shame to lose double headed presentation from regional news programmes. The ‘banter’ between the presenters helps to encourage a relationship with the viewers and therefore loyalty to the programme.

It's just like the way lighter news programmes like Breakfast, GMB or stuff like This Morning is double headed, it gives a warmer friendlier feel especially towards the end of the programme.

National news doesn't have lighter warmer moments, so when they were double headed they barely acknowledged each other, the most you'd get was a raised eyebrow at the end.

Thank you 👍

BBC West Midlands only has one presenter (Nick Owen or Mary Rhodes) and BBC South only has one (Sally Taylor). These seem to work well.
ITV Central and Meridian both seem to work well with one newsreader at the moment.
They often 'banter with the sports newsreader or weather person.

Well for the record, I‘m not complaining and I think two people works well too. But in my opinion one person works just as fine. I’m happy however that ITV haven’t chose to make any reductions to presenting teams.

Stv news Central which only went double headed in 2018 has a much better feel to it now it also does better in the ratings. Even though it’s not got the two presenters in the same studio when they come together at the end and have a conversation with the weather presenter I think it really works.

All of the opted ITV regions are doubled headed. From a presenter's point of view it means they can share the load when checking and making changes to scripts.

It's a lot for a single presenter to do, especially as there's not much time in-between recording the opted programme and the live one.