Meridian Tonight

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Meridian Tonight

Genre	News
Created by	ITV Meridian
Starring	South East: Sangeeta Bhabra (2007 - present) Ian Axton (2007 - present) South: Fred Dinenage (1993 - present) Debbie Thrower (1993 - present)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Running time	Meridian Tonight: 30 Minutes Meridian News: Varies
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV1 Meridian
Original run	January 4, 1993 – present

Meridian Tonight is the flagship news programme in the ITV Meridian region of the United Kingdom. It broadcasts at 6 p.m. every weeknight. Meridian Tonight began shortly after Meridian took over from TVS, on January 4, 1993.

Meridian's franchise area is divided into three news sub-regions, although the Meridian Tonight name is only used for two of these - Meridian South East (Kent, Medway, southern Essex, East Sussex and Brighton and Hove), and Meridian South (Brighton and Hove, West Sussex, southern Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth and eastern Dorset). The other sub-region, Meridian West (northern Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire and parts of Surrey) merged its news operations on Monday December 4, 2006 with those of the Central South region, to form a non-franchise Thames Valley service, broadcasting Thames Valley Tonight from the same studio. Additionally, this services now covers Oxfordshire, the Swindon area and Buckinghamshire.^[1]

1 On air
2 Merger
3 Presenters
4 Past presenters
5 External links
6 References

[edit] On air

Meridian News airs on ITV1 Meridian seven days a week. ITV Meridian provides three news bulletins during GMTV*. The mid-morning bulletin airs immediately after an ITV News Summary, during This Morning, this update airs for around 10 minutes. The lunchtime edition of the programme follows on from the ITV Lunchtime News, giving a five minute round-up of the days developments between 1.55pm and 2.00pm. The main evening edition of Meridian Tonight begins at 6.00pm, and ends at 6.30pm. The late news update from the region follows the News at Ten, airing between 10.25pm and 10.35pm, Mondays to Thursdays, and between 11.25pm and 11.35pm on Fridays, after The Late News.

Meridian News airs four bulletins at weekends: two on Saturday, at lunchtime, and late afternoon, and two on Sunday: at lunchtime and the evening edition at 6.25pm. Since the creation of the Thames Valley news region in December 2006, the weekend news bulletins are pan-regional, presented only from the Hampshire studios. Similarly weather forecasts show a combined map from Dorchester in the west to Dover and the Thanet towns in the east. The Thames Valley area retains its own news and weather forecast at the weekend.

Note that during GMTV, the weekday bulletins at approx. 6.35am, 7.05am and 8.05am are branded GMTV News and as a replacement for both Meridian News and the new Thames Valley News.

[edit] Merger

On 2007-09-12 it was reported that ITV plc boss Michael Grade wants to cut down its number of regional newsrooms from seventeen to nine by merging some services, which could save between £35m and £40m per year. This would involve the Meridian and Thames Valley areas being combined.^[2]

[edit] Presenters

ITV Meridian South East

Sangeeta Bhabra
Ian Axton
Helen James (Holiday cover; also on Thames Valley)
Andy Stegall (Holiday Cover)
Alison Nice (Holiday Cover)
Glen Thompsett (Holiday Cover)

ITV Meridian South East Short Bulletins

Alison Nice
Sarah Green
Nia Mason

ITV Meridian South

Fred Dinenage
Debbie Thrower
Paul Belverstone
Amanda Piper
Carolyn Sim

ITV Thames Valley

Wesley Smith
Mary Green
Hannah Shellswell (Thursday and Friday only/holiday cover)
David Reilly (Sport/holiday cover or short bulletins)
Helen James (Holiday cover or short bulletins; also covers for Meridian South East)
Divya Kohli (short bulletins)

GMTV News

Amanda Piper
Gareth Evans

Weather (all sub regions)

Gemma Humphries
Martyn Davies
Philippa Drew (occasional cover)
Robin McCallum
Carl Tyler (occasional cover, but was Meridian's main weatherman 1993-2002)
Simon Parkin (dedicated forecaster for Thames Valley, occasional cover for Meridian)

[edit] Past presenters

Charlotte Hawkins (South East) - moved to Sky News
Helen James (South East) - temporary replacement for Charlotte Hawkins, returned to reporting for Thames Valley Tonight
Phil Hornby (South East) - stopped presenting to concentrate on political reporting
Geoff Clark (South East) - moved to BBC South East
Natasha Kaplinsky (South) - moved to London Tonight, Sky News, BBC News and Five News
Glen Thompsett (South East) - freelances for Meridian, also a presenter on TV Travel Shop and voice-over artist
Andy Craig (West - now Thames Valley) - departed on creation of Thames Valley region, whereabouts currently unknown
Jane Wyatt (South) - "sensationally" replaced by Natasha Kaplinsky in 1997, whereabouts currently unknown
Sarah Lockett (South East) - unfortunate victim of a stalker, disappeared for a while before re-appearing on BBC South East, then freelanced for Sky News and ITN (Channel 4 News)
Mike Debens (South East) originally presented TVS evening news show Coast to Coast and took the main anchor on the South East edition when Meridian launched in 1993.
Ron Lobeck (South East) Weather presenter. Moved from TVS when Meridian launched in 1993.
Andrea Benfield - (Thames Valley/South East) - moved to ITV Wales to become main anchor of Wales Tonight.