ITV News

That makes sense. I've seen clips on YT as well with a short bulletin (of only about one minute), with the news presenter announcing the numbers. I'm guessing they were later in the night (during adbreaks)

My memory is the Lottery Update was in the first break after the draw and then the bulletin was usually just before 9pm - the BBC also tended to air their news as close to 9pm as possible. I think it was the same on Sundays until Corrie came along and the 7.30/8/9 fixed start time became a thing.

I don't think they ever integrated the weekend regional news, even when the did in the week. Up until the last couple of years the regional news usually aired first, though when ITN did a full classified results service the regional news and "Goals Extra" in some regions would follow the national bulletin. I guess that changed around 2001 when ITV Sport briefly had The Goal Rush for the scores then the news followed.

Goals Extra began on Granada and Central in 1991/92, of course that season they still had rights to the top flight. They carried it on after they lost the rights, Granada were still doing it circa 1996. The other regions would have had very heavy football content in the regional news in those days as well, the Saturday teatime regional bulletins on both channels were pretty much 90% sport.

The Goal Rush began on ITV2 in 1998. It was a Meridian production, and for a few months in 2000, it started being simulcast on Meridian, Anglia and HTV - but as the teatime news was on at 4.45 in those days it meant it had to stop on those channels before the final whistles, which was a bit pointless. There was also a period around the turn of the century where Gabby Logan was on the teatime news for a full sports bulletin. There wouldn't be any regional news in the late news.

The usual ITV Saturday night line-up in the autumn circa the mid-nineties would be 5.20 Baywatch, 6.15 Gladiators, 7.15 Blind Date, 8.15 Family Fortunes (which would be opposite Casualty when it was the biggest show on TV, so Family Fortunes was a useful way to fill the slot without chucking away any big shows), 8.45 News, and then a big film or entertainment special at nine. Whereas this would be your BBC1 schedule - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1995-11-25#at-17.35 - with the Gen Game, House Party, the lottery and Casualty before the news at 8.55 and usually a crap TV movie.

But as I say, there were occasions when ITV would do the news opposite the lottery around 8pm, as it was a pretty thankless slot and allowed them to line up with all the BBC1 junctions. I've got a few Radio Times from the summer of 1996 when they do this, with You Bet at 6.55, the news at 7.55 and The Big Big Talent Show at 8.10.

There was also a period circa 2000 when if the Beeb wanted to show a long film or programme that would make the news particularly late, there would be two news bulletins on an evening, like this - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1999-11-14#at-19.50

As Brekkie says, I don't ever recall the actual bulletins on weekends having a regional opt out. What you might be thinking of is that period in about 2002/2003 when they used to brand the Friday late news as the Weekend News. That would have had a regional opt out, as far as I can remember.

While we're on the subject of ITN sports newscasters, was Graham Miller considered the chief sports newscaster? Nearly all of my memories are of him reading the sports bulletins! I think there were some others like Angus Scott, Bob Hall, Phil Mepham, Peter Staunton, Matthew Lorenzo and I think Steve Scott might also have read the sports bulletins occasionally. But it does feel like Graham did 95% of them - whether that's just my skewed memory I'm not sure.

I think Gabby Yorath (Logan) came on board in 1999 but I can't remember whether she took over as the main sports newscaster from Graham Miller or whether they shared the position? I'm sure Graham was still kicking about at ITN because I remember him presenting on the ITN News Channel. Then, of course, Felicity Barr joined and I think she was the main sports newscaster before the job was abolished at some point. Personally, I don't recall any of the male stand-ins mentioned in the paragraph above presenting after the 1999 rebrand, although I could be mistaken.

Steve Scott certainly did the sports news on the 10.30pm bulletins along with Felicity Barr when they had that for a brief period so I assume he did the Saturday sport as well. Not quite sure when the separate sportscaster on Saturdays was dropped but I think both Felicity and Steve started hosting the main weekend bulletins at times which I guess made their own role redundant. Am I right in thinking too even in the Graham Miller (and usually Carol Barnes) days they only had a separate sportscaster on the Saturday teatime bulletin.

P.S. Going off topic but were ITV ever in the running to air the lottery draw back in 1994. I remember it being on BBC1 was quite controversial but it was sold as PSB service rather than an ad for Camelot, but I wonder if back in those days the opinion that it might be seen as an extended advertisement might have made it trickier for ITV to get permission to screen it - although of course in the end they were able to pass it off as news.

You're right - I'd forgotten about the brief period when a separate sport bulletin was on the News at 10.30. My guess would be that was in about 2004.

My recollection is that the separate sports newscaster only featured on Saturdays but I'm fairly certain it was for both teatime and late bulletins. There's an example here of a teatime bulletin where Carol says they will both be back later:


Another name that has just come back to me - David Bobin. I think he was Graham's predecessor as I don't recall seeing him on the 1995-99 set.

Mark Austin was the main sportscaster in the mid 80’s and Giles Smith was also a regular.

According to wiki Steve Rider also did the sport on the late bulletin during his original stint at ITV which I've never seen evidence of so not sure if true.

I think after the blue plaque (Fiona Armstrong, above) era when Mark Austin and Giles Smith were the “sportscasters” (as ITN called them), Graham Miller and David Bobin began to appear around the time of the atrium launch.

David Bobin wasn’t around for too long though.

Former BBC Sportscaster David Cass also joined ITN during the blue era but mainly read the weekend and overnight bulletins. Didn’t he also present the occasional weekend sports segment before becoming a newscaster?

Yes, there was a proper bidding process to get the rights to the lottery, so ITV could have had it. But the Beeb really wanted it, mostly because their Saturday nights were so erratic at the time - they did alright when the House Party was on, but were often all over the place when it wasn't - so as Will Wyatt says in his book, David Liddiment (who was Head of Entertainment at the time), Alan Yentob and Wyatt all lobbied Camelot hard to get it, going big on the idea that the National Lottery should be on the national broadcaster. I assume Camelot were happy with that idea as well, as it gave it some credibility, but presumably had ITV wanted it enough, they'd have got it.

On the first night of the lottery, ITV had Cilla introducing all the shows that evening, linking into Gladiators, Blind Date and a new documentary about Princess Diana. Would be fascinated to see those links, I assume they were all pre-recorded rather than Cilla giving up her Saturday night to sit in a broom cupboard at LWT. As you say, it wasn't long before people realised they didn't have to watch the draw live when they could just wait for them to appear in the next ad break on ITV.



I think Gabby only ever did the teatime news because it was sold at the time as pumping up their sports coverage a bit - she was doing On The Ball at the time, so it would have been a long day for her still being there later in the evening. This was about the same time in 1999 that the Beeb extended Final Score - it used to finish about 5.10 but from January 1999 it would regularly run on to 5.30 or later, which was I think part of the Beeb's attempts to look like they were more committed to football in the light of various high profile rights losses - so seemingly getting Gabby on the teatime news was an attempt to give it a bit more of a higher profile in the light of this.

I do remember reading something suggesting that in fifty years of broadcasting, ITV had never managed to find an attractive way to present the football results, with a host of horrible colour combinations.

The thing I remember reading about the Lottery was, ITV wouldn’t have been able to take adverts for the Lottery if they aired it.