- published: 14 Apr 2016
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Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades.
Several of the programme's editors over the years have gone on to senior positions within the BBC and elsewhere. Paxman's fellow presenters are Gavin Esler,Kirsty Wark and Emily Maitlis.Newsnight has been broadcast on BBC Two since 1980. It goes out on weekday evenings between 10:30pm and 11:20pm. Occasionally it may have an extended edition if there is an especially eventful event in the news - as happened on July 7 2011, when closure of the News of the World led to an extended version which went on until 11:35 pm. Recordings are available within the UK via the BBC website. A weekly 26-minute digest edition of Newsnight is screened on the corporation's international channel, BBC World News.
Newsnight in its current format began on 30 January 1980, although a shorter news bulletin of the same name had run in its late-night BBC2 slot during the 1970s. Its launch was delayed for four months by the Association of Broadcasting Staff, at the time the main BBC trade union.Newsnight was the first programme to be made by means of a direct collaboration between BBC News, then at Television Centre, and the current affairs department, based some distance away at the Lime Grove Studios. Staff feared job cuts.