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The Nine (and The Seven) was a Scottish television news programme on the BBC Scotland channel, covering Scottish, UK and international news. It was broadcast weekdays at 9:00 pm as The Nine and weekends at 7:00 pm as The Seven. The final broadcast took place on Thursday 19th December 2024
| The Nine | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | The Seven (Fridays and weekends, including Bank Holidays) |
| Country of origin | Scotland |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 or 30 minutes (weekdays), 15 minutes (weekends) |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC Scotland |
| Release | 25 February 2019 – 19 December 2024 |
Produced by BBC News Scotland, the 60-minute programme was broadcast on BBC Scotland at 9:00 p.m. from Monday to Thursday nights.
On Fridays, Saturday, and Sunday evenings, a shortened edition is broadcast at 7:00 p.m. (half an hour on Fridays and 15 minutes on Saturdays & Sundays), likewise retitled The Seven.
"Scottish Six" and inception
Plans for a "Scottish Six", a news programme which would see BBC Reporting Scotland and Scotland's airing of BBC News at Six be scrapped in favour of an hour-long Scottish news programme, was proposed as part of trials at BBC Pacific Quay in 2017. Despite there being a significant amount of support in having an hour-long news programme, plans for a "Scottish Six" news programme were scrapped in favour of a news programme which would be aired at a 9:00 pm time slot. STV News had tested the format on their STV2 channel with STV News Tonight, which began airing in April 2017 and would later be axed in 2018 as part of the channel's closure.[1][2][3]
Following the scrapped proposal for a "Scottish Six" news programme, BBC Scotland announced in February 2017, plans to have the same format proposed be used for a news programme that would air at 9:00 pm on a brand new BBC Scotland TV channel that was launched in February 2019.
In November 2018, BBC Scotland announced details of the programme, including the identity of the show and the presenters.[4] The first episode of The Nine aired on 25 February 2019, a day after the launch of the BBC Scotland channel.
Cancellation and proposed cutbacks
In February 2024, BBC Scotland announced it may axe The Nine, along with weekly review programme Seven Days and the showbiz news programme The Edit as part of cutbacks to the channel's news output.[5]
The Nine is due to be replaced with a new half-hour news programme each weekday, airing directly after its sister programme Reporting Scotland on BBC One Scotland.[6] This was approved by broadcast regulator Ofcom in August 2024.[7]
Low viewing figures attracted by the channel's news output has been the subject of frequent criticism. According to newspaper reports in January 2024, one edition of The Nine attracted an audience of 1,700 viewers while an edition of The Seven was watched by just 200 viewers.[5] On the day before the programme's axing was announced, The Nine was watched by 6,000 viewers, officially recording a zero share of viewing.[8]
Other investments made by the BBC, using the money saved by cutting The Nine, include an increased investment in online news and the creation of a new topical current affairs podcast series, that will be launched on BBC Sounds, iPlayer and TV.[6]
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The programme has a fifteen strong team of presenters and reporters, who present Scottish, UK, and international news from a Scottish perspective. It originally was presented by Rebecca Curran and Martin Geissler from Monday to Thursday[9] and Laura Miller and John Beattie on Fridays. Weekends are hosted by the Reporting Scotland team. Amy Irons and her brother Lewis Irons are the main sports presenters since 2022, with original sport news presenter Laura McGhie currently presenting on the BBC News and World News channels.
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| Tenure | Presenter | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-2024 | Laura Maciver | Main presenter (Monday-Wednesday) |
| Graham Stewart | Rotational presenters (Monday-Friday) and Relief (Monday-Friday) | |
| 2019-2024 | Laura Goodwin |
| Tenure | Presenter | Position | Programme |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-2024 | David Farrell | Main presenter | The Edit |
| Fiona Stalker | Seven Days | ||
| 2021–present | The Sunday Show | ||
| Martin Geissler |
| Tenure | Presenter | Position | Other roles | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021–2024 | Amy Irons | Sports Presenters | Former presenter of The Edit | |
| 2019–2024 | Laura McGhie | BBC Radio 5Live and BBC Sport presenter | Currently on maternity leave[10] | |
| 2021–2024 | David Wallace Lockhart | Political Correspondent | Relief Presenter | |
| Anne McAlpine | Relief rotating Presenters (Monday-Sunday) | Reporting Scotland presenters | ||
| Sarah McMullan | ||||
| Andrew Black | ||||
| 2022–2024 | Louise Cowie | |||
| 2023–2024 | Hope Webb | |||
| Former Presenters | ||||
| 2019-2021 | Rebecca Curran | Former Presenters | Aberdeen news reporter for Reporting Scotland | |
| 2019-2022 | Martin Geissler | The Sunday Show and Good Morning Scotland presenter | ||
| 2022-2023 | Gary Robertson | Good Morning Scotland presenter | ||
| 2019-2023 | John Beattie | BBC Radio Scotland host and Reporting Scotland presenter | ||
| 2019-2024 | Nick Sheridan[11] | Seven Days presenter (2019–2024) | ||
| 2019-2024 | Laura Miller | BBC Reporting Scotland presenter | ||
| 2024 | Julia MacFarlane | Relief presenter | Freelance journalist at BBC Scotland[12] | |
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