BBC presenter Kirsty Wark hosted Newsnight alongside Victoria Derbyshire prior to leaving last year, and she’s now addressed the recent news of her ‘permanent’ replacements
Former Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark has addressed the recent news of her replacements. She has shared her advice for them and also discussed the decision to reduce the length of the news and current affairs show’s episodes.
It was announced earlier this month that Paddy O’Connell, 59, and Matt Chorley, 42, have become permanent hosts on the BBC show. They had presented on “an ad hoc basis” since Kirsty, 70, made her final appearance in July last year.
Kirsty – whose departure was announced in 2023 – had fronted the show alongside Victoria Derbyshire, 56. Kirsty hosted on Thursday and Friday nights, with Victoria now continuing to host from Monday to Wednesday each week.
Paddy is now permanently the host on Thursdays, whilst Matt is officially the presenter on Friday nights. The BBC also confirmed in its announcement on May 7 that its political editor Nick Watt will still provide insights, whilst Faisal Islam, 47, and Katie Razzall, 54, will “continue to present regularly”.
Kirsty spoke about the line-up news whilst at the BAFTA Television Awards with P&O Cruises. She received BAFTA Fellowship, for her contribution to news and current affairs broadcasting, at the awards ceremony in London on May 11.
Speaking to the Mirror about Paddy and Matt, she shared: “They’re both brilliant journalists.” Kirsty teased on the red carpet: “And Paddy doesn’t do enough work anyway!”
She went on to compliment the wider team too. She told us whilst at the recent event: “It still means that Faisal’s doing it and Katie Razzall’s doing it, who’s the most brilliant media editor, so I think it’s a really, really thriving stable of people.”
Kirsty – who fronted the TV show for more than 30 years – suggested that Newsnight is “still the place” to make sense of the news on weeknights. She said: “I think y’know this is an era where there’s so much going on that Newsnight is still the place to make sense of [it] all at the end of the day.”
She then addressed episodes now being around 10 minutes shorter that they were. The show – which now broadcasts as 30 minute episodes – underwent a “format change” last year after first being announced by the BBC back in 2023.
After praising the show, Kirsty continued: “Okay, it’s cut to 30 minutes. Sad about that in one way but on the other hand you have to move with the times.” She concluded: “Y’know a good 30 minutes is fantastic at 10.30pm.”
Asked to share her advice for Paddy and Matt, the radio host said that the presenters should write down the name of interviewees on a piece of paper, even if they are well known. She said that was her “big piece of advice” for them.
Kirsty told us whilst at the BAFTAs: “You actually might be interviewing the President of America [but] write their name down on a piece of paper. I have seen people come a cropper at the end of an interview when you go ‘and thank you very much …’ on the upward inflection and you realise they’ve forgotten who they’re interviewing in a nanosecond.”
Source: Mirror
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