Former Newsnight host Emily Maitlis has admitted she finds the ongoing changes at the BBC show heartbreaking.
Emily worked at Newsnight for 16 years – most famously conducting the current affairs show’s infamous interview with Prince Andrew in 2019 – before stepping down from the national broadcaster two years ago.
Last year, the BBC announced it was cutting down on Newsnight’s airtime and budget as part of a cost-cutting exercise.
Speaking to the new issue of Tatler, Emily said she recently attended a goodbye party for some of her former Newsnight colleagues, which she revealed “kind of broke my heart, actually”.
“The whole programme is obviously going through a massive change, and I sort of had a pinch-myself moment,” she told the outlet.
“What’s weird is you’re in the process of helping to write that first draft of history, but you don’t always realise it at the time.”
Emily is currently gearing up for her return to our screens as part of Channel 4’s election coverage next month.
In fact, she was approached by several broadcasters before settling on Channel 4 – not least because it’s where several of her former Newsnight colleagues now work.
“There was a little rivalry between Channel 4 News and Newsnight. We always used to fight for the same guests and the same stories,” she admitted, before disclosing that she feels like she’s “going home” with her upcoming return to TV.
Emily wrote on X last year: “Could the Prince Andrew interview have happened in this iteration of [Newsnight]? Of course not.
“Aside from the painstaking prep and lengthy research that demanded from the team, [Prince Andrew] came to a flagship brand the BBC was proud of. It doesn’t feel that way tonight.
“Of course there will still be interviews and debates and the theme music will carry on. But once the bosses send out a signal they don’t really care about a flagship investigative news programme - the guests and the audience start to wonder why they should…”
The news presenter was also back in the public conversation earlier this year thanks to the release of Scoop, a Netflix original film diving into the background of her interview with Prince Andrew.
Read Emily Maitlis’ full interview in the August issue of Tatler, available via digital download and on newsstands from Thursday 27 June.
