Sky News Today

Sky News Today

Sky News Today with Dermot Murnaghan
Created by Sky News
Starring Dermot Murnaghan
Country of origin UK - Broadcast Internationally
Production
Running time 3 hours
Broadcast
Original channel Sky News
Picture format 16:9 (UK)
4:3 (International)
Original airing 2002

Sky News Today is a programme on Sky News which currently runs between 10:00am and 1:00pm and is presented by Dermot Murnaghan (Mon - Wed) and Colin Brazier (Thu - Fri)

Contents

Overview

Launched by Sky News in 1998, Sky News Today originally ran from 12-2 pm every weekday afternoon. The lack of differentiation in terms of content and tone, however, meant that there was no clear focus to the segment in a way that there later would be.

After being dropped in the autumn of 2001 as the channel shifted to more rolling output, the programme was resurrected in 2002, presented by Martin Stanford and Julie Etchingham between 10:00am and 1:00pm. The show remained like this until, in 2005, when Sky News underwent a major relaunch, and a second 'shift' was established to run between 2:00pm and 5:00pm in addition to the morning shift which now ran between 9:00am and 12:00pm. At this time, the show was presented by three presenters simultaneously.

In 2006, several changes were made to the format with the number of presenters reduced from three to two, and an increasingly large amount of time was spent at the news desk rather than presenting the show from different locations around the Sky News Centre.

In October 2007, Sky made the move to single headed presentation with Julie Etchingham becoming the anchor of what was branded on press releases as Sky Today however on air it is referred to as Sky News Today. News summaries were presented by Colin Brazier.

From Tuesday 8 January 2008, former BBC Breakfast anchor Dermot Murnaghan replaced Julie Etchingham as main presenter of the show. Likewise Emma Crosby took over the news summaries from Colin Brazier who moved to Afternoon Live to work alongside Kay Burley. Etchingham moved to ITV News to present the relaunched News at Ten with Sir Trevor McDonald.[1]

However, shortly after taking taking up the headline post, Emma moved to Sky's business news department, and then onto GMTV. As of 2009, the Sunrise summary presenter stays on for the first hour of Sky News Today, Monday - Thursday: Charlotte Hawkins, Friday: Gillian Joseph. Samantha Simmonds from 11am Tuesday-Friday & Gillian Joseph on Monday. Murnaghan does not present on Fridays.

In February 2009, Sky News Today was reduced by one hour, broadcasting from 10am to 1pm, with The Live Desk broadcasting from 9am to 10am.

From January 2011, the show no longer features a news summary presenter. Dermot presents Mon - Wed and Colin Brazier now presents Thu - Fri.

Presenter history

Morning shift

Dates Presenter One Presenter Two Presenter Three News Summaries
2002 - October 2005 Martin Stanford Julie Etchingham
October 2005 - Early 2006 Martin Stanford Anna Botting Anna Jones
Early 2006 - July 2006 Martin Stanford Anna Jones
July 2006 - November 2006 Chris Roberts Anna Jones
November 2006 - February 2007 Colin Brazier Anna Jones
February 2007 - October 2007 Martin Stanford Anna Jones
October 2007 - January 2008 Julie Etchingham Colin Brazier
8 January 2008 - 2009 Dermot Murnaghan Various
2009 - 2010 Dermot Murnaghan Samantha Simmonds
January 2011 - Dermot Murnaghan (Mon - Wed)
Colin Brazier (Thu - Fri)

Afternoon shift

Before 2005 the 1-5pm shift on Sky News was not referred to on air or in any schedule as 'Sky News Today'. It has therefore been omitted from the table.

Dates Presenter One Presenter Two Presenter Three
October 2005 - Early 2006 Mark Longhurst Steve Dixon Ginny Buckley
Summer 2006 - September 2006 Mark Longhurst Ginny Buckley
September 2006 - Late 2006 Mark Longhurst Julie Etchingham
Late 2006 - October 2007 Colin Brazier Julie Etchingham

By late Summer 2007, Sky News Today in the afternoon was often only presented by Julie Etchingham, Colin Brazier often covered other areas of programming, becoming the chief relief presenter for Live at 5. This led many to pre-empt the schedule change of October 2007 which left all news single headed.

References

  1. ^ Deans, Jason (22 October 2007). "Etchingham to leave Sky News". London: Guardian Online. http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2196955,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-22.