ITV News at 6:30

ITV News at 6:30
Format	National and International news
Presented by	Mary Nightingale Alastair Stewart
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Producer(s)	ITN
Running time	23 minutes (30 minutes including adverts and weather forecast)
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV (ITV1/STV/UTV)
Original run	6 September 1976 – Present

The ITV News at 6:30 is the evening news bulletin on the British television network ITV. It is produced by ITN.

The 30-minute programme, presented by Mary Nightingale and Alastair Stewart covers British national and international news stories and broadcasts at 6:30pm from Monday to Friday. In the event of a major news story, one of the programme's presenters will front the first ten to fifteen minutes of the programme from the scene of the story. The other newscaster will remain in the studio and read the day's other news.

On Bank Holidays, the main evening bulletin usually airs at either 6:15pm or 6:45pm, running for 15 minutes.

History

When ITN was formed on 22 September 1955, there were initially evening news bulletins on the ITV network. Originally a short ITN News broadcast was screened in the late afternoons, presented by Gordon Honeycombe; this simple bulletin made use of a light blue background with a single camera, and was intended as a round-up of the day's headlines and looking at stories to be covered in more length by that evening's edition of News at Ten.

This changed in September 6, 1976 when ITV introduced a daytime television schedule for the first time; this new schedule included a new programme, the ITN News at 545, with the first edition broadcast at 5:45pm on September 6, 1976. The 545 marked a major departure in presentational style from the ITN News that had preceded it. Initially, the bulletins were broadcast from the Police Five studio, which enabled the producers to make extensive use of chromakey to display images behind the newscaster, several studio cameras, interviews with correspondents in the studio and on a TV monitor, and wide screen shots of the studio set at the beginning and end of the programme, and when handing over to correspondents.

Alastair Burnet was the original host of the News at 545. Michael Nicholson presented the bulletin on Fridays (due to the Friday edition featuring a "World News" update), and was also a relief presenter. Immediately after the visual 'roll' and electronic audio at the beginning, the announcer intoned in a hushed tone: "The news at 5:45, with Alastair Burnett/Michael Nicholson". Other relief newscasters in the late 1970s included Leonard Parkin, who at the time also regularly hosted the News at One, and Martyn Lewis. In March 1980, when Burnett departed the 545 to present News at Ten, Nicholson replaced him as main anchor, with Carol Barnes taking over as relief presenter. In September 1986, Nicholson left the 545 to return to war reporting, and was replaced by Alastair Stewart.

In 1988 the News at 545 underwent some cosmetic changes, with the visual 'roll' logo and electronic audio being dropped in favour of a new computer-generated opening sequence and a more contemporary theme tune; the studio images were still inlaid using chromakey, although these were now also generated by computer. The programme was moved to the main newsroom within the ITN headquarters building, and full-length reports were now featured as part of the programme. ITN dispensed with the "main" presenter and relief host format, and instead a "team" of newscasters - Alastair Stewart, Fiona Armstrong, Nicholas Owen, Trevor McDonald and Carol Barnes - began presenting the show on a "rotation" basis. In 1989, the introduction of a national weather forecast at the end of the programme led to the bulletin's timeslot starting earlier at 5:40pm, being extended in length and the title being changed to News at 540.

Due to the Gulf Crisis of 1991, ITN were temporarily granted a full half-hour slot each evening; the continual change of time (and length) of the bulletin around this time led to the News at 540 being known simply as the ITN News, although the theme tune and set stayed the same with the 540 logo removed from the titles until the bulletin returned to the 5:40pm after the Gulf War ending.

By March 1992, the 540 was dropped, and re-launched as the ITN Early Evening News, though the bulletin remained at 5:40pm and kept the Early Evening News name. The "team" of presenters was scrapped, and John Suchet took over as the programme's main newscaster until the Early Evening News was axed on 5 March 1999.

The 6:30pm ITV Evening News was launched three days later with Trevor McDonald as its main presenter. He left to present the short-lived revival of News at Ten in 2001 and subsequently became main presenter on the ITV News at 10.30 (and later, a third incarnation of News at Ten in January 2008). Following McDonald's departure from the ITV Evening News in 2001, Dermot Murnaghan and Mary Nightingale became the programme's main newscasters. Mark Austin replaced Murnaghan following the latter presenter's defection to BBC News in 2002.

In August 2009, it was announced that after 16 years co-hosting London Tonight, Alastair Stewart was to leave the regional news programme to become main co-anchor of the ITV Evening News. Mark Austin, as the channel's lead news anchor, co-presents the ITV News at Ten but continues as a stand-in anchor for the 6.30pm bulletin.^[1]

In September 2011, it was announced that ITV is to pilot a new hour-long 6pm news programme that integrates its early evening regional and national news bulletins. It will also be in direct competition with the BBC News at Six. But this is only a pilot and if it proves to be unsuccessful the news at 6.30 will be re-introduced to the ITV schedules. No date has yet been set for the pilot too air.

Newscasters

Main newscasters

Years	Newscasters	Other roles	Previous roles
2001–present	Mary Nightingale
2009–present	Alastair Stewart	ITV News at 1:30 newscaster	Newscaster, 1992–1998; Relief newscaster, 2003–2009

Relief newscasters

Years	Newscasters	Other roles	Previous roles
2002–present	Mark Austin	ITV News at Ten newscaster	Main newscaster, 2002–2009
2011–present	Andrea Benfield	Wales Tonight newscaster
2008–present	Julie Etchingham	ITV News at Ten newscaster; Tonight presenter
2004–present	Nina Hossain	London Tonight newscaster
2011–2012	Natasha Kaplinsky
2002–present	James Mates	Senior Correspondent
2006–present	Steve Scott	Sports Editor

Former newscasters

Fiona Armstrong - presenter, 1985–1989 Carol Barnes - relief presenter, 1982–1994 Felicity Barr - relief presenter, 2001–2005 Andrea Catherwood - relief presenter, 2003–2006 Katie Derham - relief presenter, 2002–2010 Shiulie Ghosh - relief presenter, 1998–2006 Trevor McDonald - relief presenter, 1983–2001 Lucy Meacock - relief presenter, 2007–2009 Dermot Murnaghan - relief presenter, 1989–2002

Bill Neely - relief presenter, 2006–2008 Michael Nicholson - presenter, 1976–1986 Lucy Owen - relief presenter, 2004–2006 Nicholas Owen - relief presenter, 1990–2007 Leonard Parkin - relief presenter, 1976–1987 John Suchet - presenter, 1991–1999 Geraint Vincent - relief presenter, 2006–2009 Romilly Weeks - relief presenter, 2006–2009 Kirsty Young - presenter, 2000–2002

Guest presenters

Between 19 September and 23 September 2005, former ITN newscasters returned to present the ITV Evening News alongside either Mark Austin or Mary Nightingale as part of ITV and ITN's 50th birthday celebrations:

• Julia Somerville - presenter of News at One and News at Ten, 1987–2001
• Martyn Lewis - presenter of ITN News at 545 and News at Ten, 1976–1986
• Selina Scott - presenter of News at Ten, 1977–1982
• Gordon Honeycombe - presenter of ITN bulletins, 1965–1977
• Anna Ford - presenter of News at Ten, 1975–1981

References

1. ^ Plunkett, John (19 August 2009). "More Mark Austin on News at Ten". MediaGuardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/19/mark-austin-news-ten. Retrieved 24 June 2010. 

External links

ITV News at itv.com ITN.co.uk

ITV News on Facebook ITV News on Twitter