Speculation is mounting about the future of Newsnight. There are concerns that plans from Beeb bosses to let the News at Ten run on until 10:45pm would further eat into Newsnight’s ratings, dire news given the first ten minutes of the programme are already killed by the local news on BBC1. The BBC recently trimmed Newsnight by five minutes, giving it a scaled back 40 minute running time which has forced editor Ian Katz to limit how much can be put into each programme. Even more worryingly, there is talk that the extended News at Ten will spend longer and longer on each story. The top story now often runs as long as nine minutes, with rumours circulating that they also plan to start doing their own in-depth, Newsnight-style interviews. The idea is this will head off any threat from ITV’s revamped 10 o’clock coverage under Tom Bradby. If the BBC News at Ten runs longer, with Laura Kuenssberg doing political interviews with big-hitters, what does that mean for the relegated, scaled-back Newsnight and its 25 year history?
