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The one exception to this, for BBC NC viewers, has been during recent opts where there is no presenter avaliable (such as the awkward time after Sportsday around 22:40) and they have fallen-back on the pre-recorded Mishal Husain "sort-of continuity" clip which says something like "This is BBC News. Headlines at the top of the hour straight after this programme". This has also been used during overnights as they don't seem to be able to do proper introductions just for the NC - as with other WN-produced programmes from NBH - from the Singapore studio. I'm not sure if the reason for that is technical or operational. Back when Newsday was dual-anchored, they did used to do it but always only with the London presenter.

They can't do introductions for the NC from the Singapore studio for one specific reason - Singapore studio at the very sime time is pretty busy doing Asia Business Report for World News! And IIRC the recorded "continuity" announcement has followed Newsday more or less since its return after the height of the pandemic.

Why was there an unannounced filler programme at 8:30, why couldn’t Ben Thompson have carried on until 9:00 with the news?

Outside Source usually runs for 90 minutes, not 120. (WN has Sport Today after it.) When evening NC shift was a thing, they either covered the whole 8pm hour, or sprang into action at 8:30 pm UKT.