I think shes been on before and shes not that good anyway. Wander if Kate is Anna's permanent replacement and is on holiday or if they haven't decided yet and so are just using fill-ins?
Is there some sort of clause in Political Correspondents contracts where they have to present on News 24? (The crap ones anyway)
I think she's done a pretty decent job actually, although it's a shame she's sitting alongside Hayton, and not replacing him. He's bearable, but frankly there are far better people out there who should be in his seat.
They really do seem to have problems with female presenters on N24. There are - in my opinion - only three good ones: Jane Hill, Louise Minchin and Kate Silverton.
There are some excellent male presenters (Simon McCoy, Julian Worricker, Jon Sopel, Chris Eakin, Chris Lowe) but no good female ones.
Then again, saying that, I've said before that presenters are a personal preference thing and different people like different presenters.
Do others agree that most of the female presenters are poor?
They really do seem to have problems with female presenters on N24. There are - in my opinion - only three good ones: Jane Hill, Louise Minchin and Kate Silverton.
There are some excellent male presenters (Simon McCoy, Julian Worricker, Jon Sopel, Chris Eakin, Chris Lowe) but no good female ones.
Then again, saying that, I've said before that presenters are a personal preference thing and different people like different presenters.
Do others agree that most of the female presenters are poor?
I'd add Susanna Reid to your list of good female presenters. Chris Lowe ,am not too keen on, but as you say presenters are all personal preference.
Why did they send Mishal back to World once she returned from maternity? Surely sending her to News 24 would have allowed the News 24 team to be strenghtened with another good female presenter who became semi-familiar to BBC 1 viewers - and they could have shoved Gosling et al to World, where IMO they would suit the different pres. style.
Simon McCoy really is wasted only filling in. I'd like to see Paddy O'Connel present on N24 - might liven up the dull 9-1 slot.
I think they have (a) too many, and (b) too many average female presenters at News24. If they binned Carrie Gracie, Liz Pike, Maxine Mawhinney (she seems to have been binned already). I think Susanna Reid is top class, I'd imagine she will end up sitting next to Matthew Amroliwola in the afternoons once she returns from maternity.
The channel's presenting team seems to be in a state of flux at the moment - summer holidays kicking in, weekday presenters covering weekend shifts, and other shifts that aren't their own - and Tim Willcox as ever appearing at all times of day and night.
I think they have (a) too many, and (b) too many average female presenters at News24. If they binned Carrie Gracie, Liz Pike, Maxine Mawhinney (she seems to have been binned already). I think Susanna Reid is top class, I'd imagine she will end up sitting next to Matthew Amroliwola in the afternoons once she returns from maternity.
The channel's presenting team seems to be in a state of flux at the moment - summer holidays kicking in, weekday presenters covering weekend shifts, and other shifts that aren't their own - and Tim Willcox as ever appearing at all times of day and night.
Liz Pike is bloody awful, but I think you're being very harsh towards Carrie Gracie and Maxine Mawhinney. Gracie is very good on her own, suited well to weekend daytimes, or perhaps even to presenting on BBC World; she doesn't work brilliantly alongside another presenter however. Mawhinney on the other hand is very good with another presenter, and I thought she was well suited to the 1300-1600 alongside various male presenters.
I won't argue with you about Pike though - she's utterly abysmal in every way.
I'm really not keen on the current combination of Phil Hayton and Reeta Chakrabarti. Philip Hayton always sounds to me like he doesn't really know what he's on about, and always sounds like he's reading and very reliant on doing so - with emphasis in strange places, like he doesn't quite know where the sentence is going. He often asks odd questions in interviews too, which suggest he doesn't really understand the role and responsibility of the interviewee.
I'm not overly keen on Reeta either, because she sounds to me like she's trying to 'play' newsreader, as opposed to reporter, talking with lots of newsreader cliches when she's not reading, and over-emphasising when she is reading.
With the two of them together, there's lots of awkward pauses, where better pairs would use some kind of filler, just something little like saying 'Now...' to indicate that they're moving on, where with these two, the first stops, then there's an awkward pause, and the second starts a different story. There's a similar thing with the shuttle launch - both of them keep saying it's at 15.39, where another presenter might say 'just about twenty to four, 15.39 to be exact...', and possibly have a little chuckle about the precision - that kind of thing lends itself perfectly to a little bit of banter and ad-libbing. With this pair, it's like listening to newsreading automatons.
And with Jay Wynne on the weather, who I'm also not keen on, this morning the whole thing is striking me as slightly amateurish.
Of course all of this is a very personal thing, and lots of people might think they're the epitome of professionalism. But I'm not a fan.
When you look at it though there should be ample female newsreaders without having to drag in correspondents who, as we've seen this week with Reeta, have no experience.
I've always wondered why the newsreaders who do the national bulletins don't come over and cover for a shift. I'm sure Sian Williams, who is currently on the 6, could present the 13.00-16.00 shift with Matthew as well as the 6. If that was to happen then we could have either Philip on his own or with the presenter currently with Matthew for the 09.00-13.00 shift.
Out of interest who covered for Peter Dobbie 23.00-01.00 last night considering that he was presenting 19.00-23.00 with Liz Pike?
