[MLehon]

ITV Tyne Tees and Border have merged their programmes for a 'special', as the presenter said. Guessing it's cos the pre-recorded Border programme is now redundant? Or that one was never done in the first place because of the election announcement around about the time they'd record one?

They actually split around 7 minutes into separate programmes with the appropriate regional ITV News sting. Tyne Tees was the live programme due to inserts (a Live from Darlington). Border covered quite extensively Post Office scandal after the split. Looking at another region where the same Presenters are used across two ITV areas, West Country also had a joint programme initially though for a slightly longer period before they too split accordingly. I would expect the pre-records were a tight turnaround tonight and one of the disadvantages of OFCOM allowing the diluting of the regions.