Huge BBC show 'faces axe' as broadcaster makes £500million cuts

Now, staff at Newsnight have shared their worries that their show could be next for the chop entirely, The Sun reports.A source told the publication: “Everyone is concerned for Newsnight and how it will fare in the next cuts.The BBC is aiming to reduce costs by 10 per cent over the next three yearsGetty“We’ve been warned there are likely budget reductions and revisions next year. It’s a worrying time.”In 2023, the number of staff was more than halved from 57 to 23, with the special investigations team being cut entirely and the show reduced in length to half an hour. The BBC merged the production teams on Newsnight and Sunday with Laura Kunessberg in June.Amid the BBC’s widely publicised need to save costs and a shift to focus on social media clips and BBC iPlayer, staff are said to be concerned that the show won’t make it.The insider added that the BBC’s new director general, former Google boss Matt Brittin, “has made it clear that success is down to clicks”.The programme was responsible for Prince Andrew’s car-crash 2019 interview about his relationship with Jeffrey EpsteinPAHowever, it’s not all doom and gloom at Newsnight. Come September, the show, which first launched in 1980, will be moving its Friday edition to a peak-time slot on BBC, which the BBC said would build on “the success of its refreshed format”.A BBC spokesperson said: “We’re very proud of Newsnight’s success; since its reformat, it has significantly increased its audiences, won an RTS (Royal Television Society) award and is now being moved to a peak-time slot on Friday evenings.“As we have said, the BBC needs to save £500m over the next three years and BBC News will play its part in contributing to those savings.”Read MoreThe BBC’s radio services were worst hit in the first round of savings at the BBC, with Radio 4’s The World Tonight, the Midnight News, Money Box Live, AntiSocial, The Law Show and Crossing Continents all being cut. On the World Service, The Inquiry, The Conversation and The Fifth Floor will all close by the end of 2026.The BBC is aiming to reduce costs by 10 per cent over the next three years.