BBC Nine O'Clock News



The BBC Nine O'Clock News was the flagship BBC News programme. It was launched on 14 September 1970 and ran until 13 October 2000, when it was controversially replaced by the BBC Ten O'Clock News.

History
The first week was presented by Robert Dougall, followed by Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall, each presenting five consecutive nightly bulletins. The choice of these three was significant as it echoed the first BBC television bulletins of 1955, which they had also presented.

Other famous presenters have included John Edmunds, Peter Woods, Richard Whitmore, Angela Rippon, Jan Leeming, John Humphrys, John Simpson, Sue Lawley, Julia Somerville, Moira Stuart, Nicholas Witchell, Martyn Lewis, Michael Buerk, Peter Sissons and George Alagiah.

The Nine O'Clock News replaced The Main News at 8:45pm in a response to the launch by ITN of the News at Ten. It was the first bulletin to have a closing set of music (other bulletins would link to the weather at the end instead). The set used by the bulletin was designed to differentiate from the day's bulletins; an example of this was on 7 September 1981, where the Nine O'Clock bulletin had a wooden effect whereas other bulletins used a plain blue background instead. On 13 April 1993, as part of a relaunch of all the BBC News bulletins which created a more uniformed look, along with others, this bulletin had some variety, having a darker set and, like the others, a stereo orchestral version of the previous mono title music. A larger relaunch of all the BBC News output came on 10 May 1999 when the programme once again shared a common theme and set with the daily programme.

Between 10 May 1999 and 13 October 2000, the programme would be advertised as the BBC News at Nine. The final bulletin was presented by George Alagiah in Jerusalem and Peter Sissons in London.

The programme was broadcast on BBC1 and inspired a BBC2 comedy show running in the same timeslot, Not the Nine O'Clock News.