Newsnight could be axed next year as BBC hunts £500m of savings

A big development

As the Mirror reported, employees have told The Sun that the show's days are now numbered.

Why Newsnight is in the firing line

In June this year, Director-general Matt Brittin told staff that the corporation must save £500m over three years.

“The scale of savings requires tough choices, careful work and won’t all be ready at once,” he wrote in an email confirming that one in 10 jobs would go.

“All divisions will be making significant savings”, he added.

One brutal restructure was already survived by the programme, as a 2024 overhaul cut its investigative journalism teams and slashed headcount from 57 to 23.

This left a debate-and-guests format fronted by Victoria Derbyshire, Matt Chorley and Paddy O’Connell, while in June its production was merged with Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg.

A BBC spokesperson did not rubbish the claims reported in The Sun when asked for comment.

“Since its reformat it has significantly increased its audiences and won an award”, they said.

“The BBC needs to save £500m over the next three years. News will play its part in contributing to those savings.”

Launched in 1980, Newsnight has been responsible for some TV news’ biggest ever moments.

Losing it would end a 46-year run that produced some of British television’s defining moments, from Jeremy Paxman’s 1997 grilling of Michael Howard over prisons boss Derek Lewis to Emily Maitlis’s 2019 interview with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor about Jeffrey Epstein.