Staff producing the BBC's long-running flagship programme Newsnight fear it may be facing the axe, with the show potentially disappearing from TV screens by the end of next year.
Newsnight staff have told The Sun they believe the programme's days are numbered, as sweeping cuts hit the corporation, which must save £500 million to make ends meet, new Director-General Matt Brittin said in June.
BBC confirms tough choices ahead
“The scale of savings requires tough choices, careful work and won't all be ready at once. All divisions will be making significant savings,” Brittin wrote in an email to staff, which confirmed one in 10 jobs would be made redundant.
Newsnight faced a major overhaul in 2024 when bosses cut its investigative journalism teams. Since then, the show — fronted by Victoria Derbyshire, Matt Chorley, and Paddy O'Connell — has centred around debate and political guests discussing the big events of the day.
Staff cuts and production merger
The move slashed Newsnight's headcount from 57 to 23. More savings were made in June, when the BBC merged the production of Newsnight and Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.
A BBC spokesperson did not rubbish the claims reported in The Sun when asked for comment. They said: “Since its reformat it has significantly increased its audiences and won an award. “The BBC needs to save £500m over the next three years. News will play its part in contributing to those savings.”
A history of iconic moments
Launched in 1980, Newsnight has been responsible for some of TV news' biggest ever moments. Millions tuned into Emily Maitlis' bombshell interview with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in November 2019, when she grilled the then-Prince over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
And, back in 1997, long-time host Jeremy Paxman infamously asked then-Home Secretary Michael Howard if he 'threatened to overrule' prisons boss Derek Lewis 12 times during a live clash about Howard's decision to sack Lewis two years earlier.
