[Stooky Bill]

I suppose the BBC, in classic BBC “avoiding audience confusion” style, decided that having the main UK-wide programme on a channel called BBC Scotland, but a Scotland-specific programme on BBC One Scotland at the same time, was just too confusing.

Not really, it's what they did on Saturday for the FA Cup.

I suspect it's more a case of BBC Scotland not being a 24 hour channel and the election results being on air way into the next day

[dvboy]

I suppose the BBC, in classic BBC “avoiding audience confusion” style, decided that having the main UK-wide programme on a channel called BBC Scotland, but a Scotland-specific programme on BBC One Scotland at the same time, was just too confusing.

They also seem embarrassed about even having the BBC Scotland channel at all, at this point, so it’s hardly a shock that they are trying to pretend it doesn’t exist.

I imagine that, in reality, we will get a generic reminder during the coverage that “viewers across the UK can watch the (main) programme on the BBC News channel” and the BBC Two option will go unpublicised.

The BBC also do not like to draw attention to BBC Scotland being the spiritual successor to BBC Two Scotland because they don’t want to remind people that they’ve axed a service to create it.

There won't be a BBC Two option in Scotland so not a problem there, unless you meant for Wales and Northern Ireland in which case if they aren't publicising it then what's the point?

[JMT1985]

I was surprised the didn't chose Fiona Bruce as the main anchor for the night on the BBC

[mark]

I can't recall a previous election night on the BBC or ITV featuring a double-header, though I think Sky has done it in the past - perhaps in that uear that featured the cheesy intro with Adam Boulton turning towards the camera and posing?

Yep - three times, I think...

1992: Selina Scott and Michael Wilson (with a lot of other people round the desk too)
1997: Kay Burley and Laurie Mayer
2005: Julie Etchingham and Adam Boulton

[RhysJR]

ITV have announced that they will host the first debate of the campaign, a Sunak v. Starmer debate on ITV 1 next Tuesday. It will be hosted by Julie Etchingham.

www.itv.com 

ITV to broadcast first head-to-head General Election debate between Sunak and St…
The debate will take place live in front of a studio audience and will be broadc…
  Source: www.itv.com

An unintended consequence of this is taht England women's football match vs. France on Tuesday has been pushed over to ITV 4, which is not the greatest of looks I must say. That does mean that both of England's qualifying matches against their highest profile opponent are on ITV 4, with the reverse fixture this Friday relegated to ITV 4 in favour of Britain's Got Talent.

twitter.com 

[bilky asko]

ITV have announced that they will host the first debate of the campaign, a Sunak v. Starmer debate on ITV 1 next Tuesday. It will be hosted by Julie Etchingham.

www.itv.com 

I believe I'm right in saying that this is the first head-to-head debate ITV have done. Maybe they'll take the opportunity to have a different look to the post-2010 debates.

[XIII]

The second debate will probably be on the BBC either the week after or during the Euros.

[matthieu1221]

Sophy Ridge just plugged this on her show just now. A Town Hall style event it seems in Grimsby. Looks like Sky has managed to get around the 'two debates only' agreement between the Tories and Labour which is excellent news for them and fits well into their target town focus. Wonder if they'll go big and American with a studio built up in a a large hall or whether it'll be more like a pub-scale event?

news.sky.com 

Be in the audience for our general election leaders event | Politics News | Sky …
Labour leader Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Rishi Sunak have been invited…
  Source: news.sky.com

[alfiejmulcahy]

I believe I'm right in saying that this is the first head-to-head debate ITV have done. Maybe they'll take the opportunity to have a different look to the post-2010 debates.

They had Johnson Vs Corbyn in 2019.

[RhysJR]

As an aside, the ITV election debate will be filmed in Glasgow (I think) next door to House of Games.

The idea I've seen some say off the back of this, f the party leaders doing a week of House of Games does sound quite entertaining to be honest, though very remote.

twitter.com 

---

Has Julie hosted all of ITV's debates since the first one in 2010? Trying to think of how many hosts we have had across the channels over the years. From vague memory, it feels like there has been a reasonably high number.