RTE’s global gamble
Nowhere else in the world does a main evening news bulletin have two women anchors. So will the new Six One prove a stroke of genius... or a step too far?
The perception is women don’t have gravitas ‘Keelin and Caitriona are too similar’
AFEW years ago, to watch the TV news in Russia, you’d have had to fly to Moscow or St Petersburg. Now, from the comfort of your couch, you can watch any number of Russian evening news programmes. Or Japanese. Or Pakistani. Or Australian. Or just about anywhere else.
And obviously each news bulletin has its own format: often pro-government, sometimes serious, sometimes casual. The presenters are different too: young, old, male, female, wearing glasses, hijabs, some glamorous, some not so.
Sets range from the very simple to the lavishly elaborate. From newscasters sitting at a desk in front of a plain backdrop with maybe just the station logo, to hosts striding around a studio filled with multiple video screens and other glitzy props, modern technology helping to illustrate and illuminate that day’s stories and hopefully lure in younger viewers.
But there is one thing that is the same across every single major network news bulletin around the world: it’s not presented by two women. Ever. Of course many evening news shows around the globe have in recent years forgone the oldstyle format of two presenters, now relying on solo anchors who check in with numerous reporters out in the field.
Indeed in Britain and the US, most early and late evening news programmes have just one host. Co-anchoring is more usually left to the realms of breakfast television, where the shows are a lot longer and cover many different kinds of topics and are often a lot lighter.
But there are still two-handers to be found, not least our very own Bryan Dobson and Sharon Ní Bheoláin, who have co-anchored the Six One News for more than a decade.
While in places like Brisbane, Australia, you will find Andrew Lofthouse and Melissa Downes presenting the news at 9pm. Or there’s William Bonner and Renata Vasconcellos who co-host the prime time news show in Brazil.
In China, the main news bulletin on CCTV, their State television channel, is presented by Kang Hui and his female sidekick, Li Zimeng. In New Zealand you’ll find Mike McRoberts and Samantha Hayes co-hosting at 6pm.
In fact, even the Lego Ninjago movie, which features a news bulletin that is tailored to wherever in the world it’s being shown, has Ben Sheppard and Kate Garraway as its anchors in this part of the world.
And that what makes next week’s Six One so special.
When Keelin Shanley and Caitriona Perry take to the screen, they will be the only female-female presenters of a major news bulletin anywhere in the world. The traditional older man-younger woman format is the most prevalent worldwide, sometimes there has been two men. But it’s rarely two women.
In the US there has just been one such pairing on a major network. It was announced in 2013 that the station PBS would have two women, Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, hosting their 6 o’clock show, NewsHour.
PBS trumpeted how ‘this will mark the first time a network broadcast has had a female co-anchor team’. Sadly it didn’t last long as Ifill was diagnosed with cancer and died in 2016; Woodruff now presents the show alone.
As landmark as the decision was, PBS — which is, as it’s name suggests, a public service broadcasting station and a non-profit organisation — was really already preaching to the converted. It attracts a largely liberal, well-educated audience which readily accepted a female news anchor duo.
But while heralded for its progressive, trustworthy programming, it has just a fraction of the viewing figures of other major US networks like CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox.
So why is it so rare to have two female anchors? And why, at a time when ratings for television news are falling as many now get the daily information they need from the internet, is RTÉ taking a massive risk?
Karen Ross, professor of gender and media at Newcastle University in England, is an expert on women in the media and author of a large number of books on the subject.
She agrees that television news coanchors have traditionally been an older man and younger woman.
‘It’s been that the older man is the serious face of news and does the headlines, while she’s the one generally who does human interest stories or items that are slightly lighter,’ says Professor Ross.
‘Part of what we think is going on there is that there is a perception that women don’t have the authority or the gravitas to deliver bad news, which is complete nonsense. There are any number of great women presenters and journalists.
‘It’s sad in some ways that two women co-anchoring a news show does become news. It shouldn’t do but it does because it’s so unusual. So the question is, why is it so unusual? And my answer would be, there has been this tradition that women are there much more for decorative purposes, as a foil to the avuncular older man.
‘It’s brilliant that public service broadcasting, in the shape of RTÉ, is doing something other than that. I think that’s fantastic.’
Does she agree with those who claim it’s a risky move?
‘Nonsense,’ she says. ‘We’ve seen for decades that male media professionals say things like: “You can’t put women on radio because their voices are too screechy and audiences won’t like it.” Or: “You can’t put older women on TV because it’s a massive turn off.”
‘Where’s your evidence for that? There is zero evidence. And I would be amazed if your [broadcasting] watchdog is going to be inundated with complaints,’ she says of the allfemale line-up.
‘Even if there is the tiniest kernel of truth in that view, the fact is, if the media is supposed to be offering a window on the world, the world is 50% women. Women are in the media at every level and I don’t buy that an older audience will be put off by having two women co-anchors, regardless of their age.’
Unlike others who have hailed the appointments as daring, Prof Ross says television stations always have their eye on the profits.
‘I don’t think it’s a brave move, I think it’s a canny move,’ she says. ‘Organisations like RTÉ don’t do things because they’re morally right. They do things because there are bottom line considerations.
‘If we think about who is actually watching news and how they’re watching it, there has been a move in the last couple of decades to have more women onair. On the grounds that news has become more infotainment, more human interest, more personable, and women are quite good at that, having a more humane approach that resonates with audiences.
‘There has definitely been a trend where more women are getting more presenting and anchor positions.’
While complimentary about RTÉ’s move, she did raise another interesting question about the new appointments.
‘The thing about having two women, certainly in the American context, is that they are generally quite glamorous,’ she explains. ‘So one of the issues for me, having done some work about women in media who become presenters, is that once they come to a certain age you don’t see them on TV any more.’
There is no doubt that Shanley and Perry are both accomplished journalists, with Shanley in particular having already proved her mettle across many different RTÉ platforms, including hosting her own television daily news show, Morning Edition.
Her name, as the Irish Daily Mail exclusively revealed some time ago, has long been mooted to take over the main evening news show.
Up until recently she’s been presenting RTÉ Radio1’s News At One and the television show, Crimecall, while Perry has just returned from a fouryear stint as the station’s Washington’s correspondent.
Both are immensely experienced, yet not everybody is on board.
‘I think it’s a big risk, I was very surprised to hear about it,’ one producer told the Irish Daily Mail.
‘A news audience is very traditional, it’s just the way it’s been and RTÉ has a very habitual audience. They like the older man who they think offers gravitas.
‘Morning shows have a very different audience, mostly women, so having an all-female line-up isn’t that bizarre. But for the beast that is the Six One news, I’m just not sure it will work. Not for the farmer in his 60s in rural Ireland, and that’s the audience you have to think about.’
‘I think a lot of people in the industry were pretty shocked to hear the new line-up. You wondered if they had thought about their audience, which is older and used to having a male anchor.
‘I also think Keelin and Caitriona are too similar, there’s not enough contrast.’
The producer also pointed out that
the programme will be under pressure from the off to keep the viewing figures up.
‘If they get off to a bad start, they will be immediately judged and they’ll be under pressure, not least from the advertisers,’ they said. ‘And the first thing that will be questioned is why they went with two women.’
Others in media circles, however, think the new pairing will be a winning combination.
‘Keelin is clever and sharp and there’s a bit of wit to her,’ says one journalism lecturer. ‘Caitriona has a different style and I think they’ll compliment each other nicely. I know it might sound a bit misogynistic, but it helps that they are both attractive without being “plastic dolly” looking.
‘They are both very well presented and I don’t just mean that visually, their presenting styles and vocal talents are excellent.
‘I personally think they’ll be a breath of fresh air, Keelin can take a ball and run with it. And Caitriona has tonnes of ingenuity, she’s clever and charming and her news sense is always turned on. But I think what will stand to them most is that they are both very adaptable.’
For its part, it seems as though RTÉ is reluctant to publicly acknowledge what a momentous decision this has been — and very possibly a big risk. There was no mention in the press release announcing their appointments about how it would be the first time the State broadcaster’s flagship news program would be helmed by two women.
But while the station decided to ignore this rather positive breakthrough, it was the first thing the new presenters were asked about at a subsequent press call.
‘I think it’s great. I think it is in many ways a brave and enlightened choice by our boss here Jon Williams,’ Perry said of RTÉ’s head of news. ‘Particularly given the debate that there has been in Ireland about gender bias and how certain other shows are very male-dominated, or stations are male-dominated.’
‘I don’t think we got it because we are women,’ added Shanley. ‘I don’t think we would’ve wanted it on that basis either. I think we got it on merit. We’re both solid journalists.’
It was a sentiment echoed by RTÉ bosses whenever they were asked about the appointments.
‘I don’t think we set out to have an all-female news team,’ said Hilary McGouran, the managing editor for RTÉ News.
‘This is our biggest flagship news programme and obviously Bryan and Sharon have presented it with great skill for a long time,’ she added. ‘So you want to make sure whoever goes in there to take on that mantle continues that.
‘We are hugely lucky in RTÉ that we have a wealth of talent. It just happens that the new presenters are women.
‘I know some people would like to spin it that we deliberately went out to do this but actually we picked the best people for the job and I can’t tell you the excitement in the newsroom.’
How long that excitement lasts will depend on the ratings. There’s no doubt their introduction to the program will cause a flurry of interest among the viewing public.
But whether or not they can add new viewers, as well as hold on to the existing ones, remains to be seen. And because of the unusual nature of the situation, it’s difficult to predict.
But when you look — and we have, extensively — it seems impossible to find any other examples of a female-female-led newscast.
So does this mean RTÉ is going out on a limb, hoping for the best — or just way ahead of the curve?