''BBC News at Ten'' (formerly known as the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' or the ''Ten O'Clock News'') is the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's flagship evening news programme on British television channels

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

and the BBC News Channel, broadcast nightly at 10:00pm and produced by

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

. It is normally broadcast for 30minutes, except on bank holidays when it may be shorter and only shown on BBC One. The programme was controversially moved from 9:00pm to 10:00pm on 16 October 2000. The Sunday edition of the programme is listed as '' BBC Weekend News'' on TV guide and

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available Over-the-top media service, over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including Mobile phone, mobile phones and Tablet computer ...

. Since the suspension of Huw Edwards in July 2023, the programme has been without a fixed presenter schedule, and has been fronted by Fiona Bruce, Sophie Raworth, Reeta Chakrabarti, Clive Myrie and Jane Hill. From 4 February 2015 to 27 December 2019, the programme had a 45-minute format, with a half-hour segment focusing on British national and international news (with an emphasis on the latter), a 12-minute segment of local news from the BBC's Nations and

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

across the UK, and concluding with the national weather forecast. The programme used a shortened, 35-minute format on Friday nights to accommodate ''

The Graham Norton Show ''The Graham Norton Show'' is a British comedy chat show presented by Graham Norton. It was initially broadcast on BBC Two, from 22 February 2007, before moving to BBC One in October 2009. It currently airs on Friday evenings, with Norton ...

''. On 4 February 2019, in order to accommodate a new time slot focusing on youth programmes from

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

, the shortened format was adopted on a nightly basis. The programme was re-extended during the 2019 general election and during part of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

it was extended back to its 45-minute format, with ''

Newsnight ''Newsnight'' is the BBC's news and current affairs programme, providing in-depth investigation and analysis of the stories behind the day's headlines. It is broadcast weeknights at 10:30 on BBC Two and the BBC News channel; it is also avail ...

'' moving to 10:45pm on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

. Since mid-2021, the programme reverted to its 35-minute format. During the first three months of its revival, '' ITV News at Ten'' averaged 2.2million viewers compared with an average of 4.8million viewers watching the BBC bulletin over the same period. ''BBC News at Ten'' is usually not broadcast on the international feed of BBC News channel and is meant for UK viewers only. However, during special occasions or major stories such as the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the programme is simulcast on the international feed, carrying ''BBC News at Ten'' branding and title sequence, although listed on the guide as simply ''BBC News''.

History

The programme was launched on 16 October 2000, replacing the ''

BBC Nine O'Clock News The ''BBC Nine O'Clock News'' is a news programme that was BBC News' flagship for more than thirty years. It was launched on 14 September 1970 and ran until 13 October 2000, when it was replaced by '' BBC Ten O'Clock News'' (later ''BBC News a ...

'' which had been on the air since 14 September 1970. Its launch presenters were

Michael Buerk Michael Duncan Buerk (; born 18 February 1946) is a British journalist and newsreader. He presented BBC News from 1973 to 2002 and has been the host of BBC Radio 4's '' Moral Maze'' since 1990. He was also the presenter of BBC One's docudrama ...

and Peter Sissons with George Alagiah as relief newscaster when neither Buerk or Sissons were available. The move to 10:00pm was a response to the controversial axing of rival broadcaster ITV's ''News at Ten''. ITV reinstated a 20-minute news bulletin at 10:00pm on 22 January 2001, instigating a head-to-head clash with the BBC. The BBC's ''Ten O'Clock News'' eventually became the more popular programme, establishing itself on the

schedule for at least six days a week. ITV's bulletin suffered as a result of poor scheduling, and on 2 February 2004 the bulletin moved to 10:30pm. In 2008, ITV reinstated ''News at Ten'' which remains the BBC's main competitor. Buerk and Sissons left the ''BBC Ten O'Clock News'' on 19 January 2003 to make way for presenters Huw Edwards and Fiona Bruce. To mark this presenter reshuffle, on Monday 20 January 2003 as Edwards and Bruce took over, the bulletin and the rest of

news bulletins were relaunched with a new studio. Since 5 February 2006, the bulletin has been simulcast on the BBC News channel. On 21 April 2008, the programme, along with the rest of

, underwent a graphical refresh and moved into a refurbished studio (N6). It also changed its name to ''BBC News at Ten''. A national weather forecast is included within the programme, just before the hand-over to the news from the Nations and Regions. ''BBC News at Ten'' was named News Programme of the Year at the RTS Television Journalism Awards in 2005, 2009 and 2010. The programme, along with the BBC News and the others BBC One bulletins, moved to

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

and began broadcasting in high-definition on 18 March 2013. Following a five-month trial during the run-up to the 2015 general election, it was announced that the programme would be permanently extended to 45 minutes on Mondays through Thursdays from January 2016 (with the Friday-night edition retaining its original length to accommodate ''

''). Following 16 years in the role, on 4 January 2019, Bruce stepped down as the programme's main presenter on Fridays in order to replace David Dimbleby on '' Question Time''. Sophie Raworth and Clive Myrie serve as the regular presenters on Fridays with Bruce occasionally appearing on the programme as a relief presenter. On 4 February 2019, it was announced that the programme would be shortened back to 35minutes beginning 4 March 2019, to accommodate a new broadcast of

programmes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights. The decision faced criticism from those who believed this was the result of cuts. BBC staff denied that this was the case, arguing that the time slot could help attract BBC Three's target audience, and would also remove the scheduling overlap with ''

'' on BBC Two. On 16 March 2020, in light of the

, the programme was extended to a 45-minute bulletin until 13 March 2022; until May 2021 ''Newsnight'' moved to 10:45pm, initially because it shared a studio with the ''BBC News at Ten'', and later to avoid a schedule clash. The 10 o'clock news bulletin lasted 30minutes, with news bulletins from the BBC's regional services lasting for 15minutes. On 19 July 2021, the bulletin went back to 35minutes, with ''Newsnight'' returning to its normal time of 10:30pm. On 26 May 2022, the BBC announced that the ''BBC News at Six'' and ''Ten'', along with ''BBC Breakfast'' will be revamped in June 2022 to include a completely new studio and presentation, as part of a wider rebrand of the BBC in general. Local regional programmes will also be revamped over the coming months to tie in with the regional BBC channels broadcasting in HD by the beginning of 2023. On 13 June 2022, the BBC News at 10 broadcast their first edition from the new studio set, which is a much larger studio than before with different sized screens which can be interacted with by reporters and the presenter. A new semi-circle desk has also been introduced, as well as a spiral staircase in a nod to the previous studio which showed the spiral staircase in the newsroom. The BBC News at 6 broadcast their first edition from the new studio a day later. Since then, the BBC Weather forecasts follow both the 6 and 10 O'clock national bulletins, which is also followed by introductions to regional news programmes from

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and national news programmes from

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Following the unification of BBC News for UK viewers and international viewers in April 2023, the programme continues to be simulcast only on the UK feed while international viewers get BBC World News America at the same time slot instead. The presentation after the merge remains identical except for the new titles with chameleon-style branding.

Out-of-studio presenting

As well as presenting from the main studio, the main presenters are called upon to present on location when major stories break. For example, Huw Edwards reported live from Washington for the 2008, 2012 and 2016 US presidential elections and has presented live from Basra at the withdrawal ceremony. He also regularly presented from Westminster, as well as from Edinburgh (at times when the referendum for Scottish independence was being developed). During the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, presenters also made use of BBC's makeshift studios overlooking the Olympic Park at Stratford. George Alagiah presented from L'Aquila in April 2009, Haiti in 2010, Egypt in 2011 and Tacloban in 2013. On 14 June 2017, the evening of the

Grenfell Tower fire On 14 June 2017, a List of fires in high-rise buildings, high-rise fire broke out in the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of Public housing in the United Kingdom, flats in North Kensington, West London, England, at 00:54 British Summer Time, BST ...

, Huw Edwards presented live from a distance outside of the tower block. The still-burning tower could be seen behind Huw as he was covering the story. On 10 October 2018, due to technical problems at the Broadcasting House, Huw Edwards presented at ''BBC Millbank'' Studios. In March 2022, Reeta Chakrabarti presented from Lviv (as well as the bulletins at ''One'' and ''Six'') during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Staff

Editor

Paul Royall has been the editor of ''BBC News at Ten'' and ''BBC News at Six'' since 1 July 2013. Royall joined the BBC from ITV Meridian in 1997, working on News 24. He later became deputy editor of ''

BBC Breakfast ''BBC Breakfast'' is a British television breakfast news programme, produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC One every morning from 6:00am. It is also broadcast on the UK feed of BBC News channel on weekends. The simulcast is presented live, ...

'' in January 2004, to the editor Mark Grannell. In May 2009, he became the deputy editor of the ''News at Ten'' and ''News at Six''. He became editor on 22 July 2013, replacing James Stephenson who became Head of BBC World News.

Presenters

Current presenters

Former presenters

References

External links

* * {{BBC News 2000 British television series debuts 2000s British television series 2010s British television series 2020s British television series BBC News BBC television news shows British television news shows Flagship evening news shows