Hosting Loose Women is a tougher job than Newsnight, says Kaye
Stuart MacDonald
KAYE Adams has hit out at snobby critics of Loose Women and said presenting the show is more difficult than hosting Newsnight.
The Scottish broadcaster said the daytime ITV programme was an easy target for mockery but insisted it was a great platform for women.
She said it should be celebrated as one of the very few all-female productions on British television.
Kaye, 57, said the fluid nature of the show meant she had to think on her feet and react quickly to her fellow panellists’ comments.
She said it was a harder task than that faced by an interviewer like Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis – or its former host Jeremy Paxman – who could probe a politician with the same questions over and over.
Speaking to Zara Janjua on the Royal Bank of Scotland’s Ask For More podcast, Kaye said: “I’m very, very protective of that brand because I think – like a lot of daytime television and certainly a lot of productions that are all female – they are very easy to diss [disrespect]. Actually here we are in 2020 and there are very few productions that are all-female and I think that is a really important thing.
“Women generally have a certain way of communicating, we have a certain way of telling stories and a certain way of sharing experiences that I think is quite special.
“I think it’s good to see that represented on a platform like that.
“Because I have been around for so long and I have done the pointy-headed political shows and I would always argue, although Jeremy Paxman might not agree with me, that actually it’s kind of easier to do Newsnight in some ways. Because there you have three killer questions, you know what you have got to ask and you keep going down that road.
“Whereas on a show like Loose Women it’s a piece of putty.”
BBC Scotland radio presenter Kaye was an anchor on Loose Women from 1999 to 2006 and rejoined the show in 2013.
●●The Ask For More podcast featuring Kaye is out today.