Peaky

John Lucius MacAndrew appeared on Newswatch this week to explain the move of Friday's edition of Newsnight - 'a real opportunity to bring the programme to new audiences'. 

The first 7pm slot attracted 500k viewers.  It boasted Neil Kinnock, Rory Stewart, Alva Ray of the New Statesman, and an extended interview with Kemi Badenoch.  On YouTube, Newsnight is cut up into bitesize chunks under the banner BBC Politics, with added big capital letters. The Badenoch interview has so far achieved 19k views.  Maybe it will build - Paxman v Russell Brand, from 12 years ago, has clocked up 13 million views. 

Meanwhile Strictly launched with an average of 5.3m viewers, and a healthy 50% share (up from 42% in 2025) 

2025 - 5.4m

2024 - 5.4m

2023 - 6.2m

2022 - 6.8m

2021 - 7.0m

2020 - 8.6m