News at Ten

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News at Ten opening titles

Trevor McDonald presenting the original final broadcast of News at Ten

News at Ten was ITN's flagship news programme from 3 July 1967 until 5 March 1999, and 22 January 2001 until 30 January 2004.

It was the first half-hour news programme on British television. Its presenting team consisted of Sir Alastair Burnet, Sandy Gall, Andrew Gardner, Reginald Bosanquet, Selina Scott and Anna Ford to name but a few, and the pre-eminent newscast of the Thatcher Years. However, after much debate and controversy, it was axed in 1999 to allow the uninterrupted broadcast of dramas and films on ITV1. There was a new ITV Nightly News at 11pm, however it did not do well in the ratings and was axed to allow the re-introduction of News at Ten.

News at Ten returned in 2001. Its main anchor was Trevor McDonald OBE, who presented it first time round from 1991 until 1999, and then for its short-lived reprieve from 2001 until 2004, by which time he was Sir Trevor McDonald OBE.

In this later run, however, the programme was shorter. The ITV Nightly News had only been 20 minutes and this remained the case for the move back to 10. Unusually, the regional news remained at 11.20 for some time, although it was later amalgamated with News at Ten, causing the news segment to become 30 minutes. Another unusual aspect of the new programme was its scheduling. It only ran Monday-Thursday, with the Friday news remaining at 11.00 and being renamed the ITV Weekend News. Even on Monday-Thursday, the programme was often delayed to 10.30 to allow for other programming such as films, drama or football. This uncertainty led the programme to be dubbed News at When? by some of its critics.

It was announced late in 2003 that News at Ten would be axed for a second time because of poor ratings against the BBC's main news programme, also at ten o'clock. And on 2 February 2004, the ITV News at Ten Thirty was born, again anchored by Sir Trevor. Trevor left the News at Ten Thirty and ITN in December 2005, and the show has since re-launched, now anchored by Mark Austin.