Evan Davis replaces Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight as BBC sees audience figures slump

In the chair: Evan Davis was announced as Jeremy Paxman's replacement on Newsnight

21 July 2014

The Today programme’s Evan Davis is to replace Jeremy Paxman as Newsnight’s top presenter, the BBC announced today.

Director-general Tony Hall hailed the appointment as he unveiled the broadcaster’s annual report, saying: “Evan is an outstanding journalist who will do an outstanding job on Newsnight.”

Oxford-educated Davis, 52, who has been a presenter on Radio 4’s morning flagship since 2008, is a former BBC economics editor who was praised for using his business knowledge to provide insight into the global financial crisis.

The openly-gay journalist also fronts the entrepreneurs’ talent show Dragons’ Den and business discussion programme The Bottom Line and earlier this year presented a two part series about the capital called Mind the Gap: London vs the Rest,

Davis succeeds one of the biggest names in television who stepped down from Newsnight last month after 25 years presenting the BBC’s current affairs programme.

Lord Hall also today admitted the Corporation must “do better” as the annual report showed falling viewing figures and audience appreciation across both its TV and radio output, while the governing BBC Trust warned of a “gender imbalance” with a lack of women on air.

The amount of time that Britons spent watching and listening to the BBC fell to 18.5 hours per week from 19.5 hours a year earlier.

The two flagship channels, BBC1 and BBC2, and youth channel BBC3 all saw audiences fall, with only highbrow BBC4 holding steady.

“Audience appreciation of BBC television, while remaining high, has fallen slightly for the first time in a number of years,” admitted the BBC, which also saw appreciation of its radio service drop for the second year in a row.

BBC Trust acting chair Diane Coyle, who replaced Lord Patten after he quit because of ill health, demanded that the Corporation must focus on “increasing the number of women on air” and warned BBC News “needs to innovate in order to draw in younger audiences”.

The proportion of children aged six to 12 watching the CBBC channel also slumped from 30 per cent to 25 per cent as satellite TV and the internet offered more choice.

The BBC’s huge internet operation, BBC Online, which includes the iPlayer, bucked the trend, as audience appreciation increased.

BBC director of television Danny Cohen insisted TV figures were partly skewed by tough comparisons with the 2012 Olympics. “On audience apprection, we had very, very high scores the year before,” he said.

The slump in the BBC’s popularity comes after the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal and the row over BBC executive pay-offs and it comes at a critical time as Lord Hall prepares to negotiate a new licence fee deal with the Government in 2016.

Total staff numbers rose by 138 to 16,672, despite the BBC budget being squeezed as the licence fee was frozen at £145.50. Total income rose slightly to £3.7 billion thanks to improved licence fee collection and more households.

The BBC also released new information showing it paid 12 departing executives more than £150,000 each in pay-offs during the year to March 2014, even though Lord Hall clamped down the practice midway through the financial year.

Hall earned £450,000 although BBC Worldwide chief executive Tim Davie enjoyed the biggest pay packet, collecting £670,000, including £231,000 bonus, for running the commercial arm BBC Worldwide, which sells merchandising and programmes overseas, despite revenues falling 6.6 per cent. BBC Worldwide’s profits rose 0.7 per cent to £154.7 million.

Evan Davis replaces Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight as BBC sees audience figures slump

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