GB News chairman and star presenter Andrew Neil is to take a break from the channel just two weeks after it went live.
The journalist and broadcaster, who lives in France, announced his plans at the end of Thursday’s programme
“That’s it for tonight and from me for the next few weeks… But I leave you in the safe and professional hands of Colin Brazier,” he told viewers.
As of Friday morning, Neil was still listed on the Sky TV guide as the presenter of the 8pm slot for Monday’s programme.
GB News, which is perceived to be right-leaning, and claims to give a voice to those excluded by traditional media has been dogged by technical problems since it went live on June 13th. It has also faced an advertiser boycott, though its effectiveness is questionable.
“We’re a start-up, they’re always a bit rocky these start-ups. But we are up and running as you can see, we get better every day and there’s clearly an appetite for what we’re doing,” admitted Neil as he signed off.
“And in two short weeks, we’ve already built a loyal audience which has beaten all of our expectations, it’s often bigger than the other news channels and it’s growing.
Neil says his June 23rd programme drew three times Sky’s UK audience and 26% more than the BBC News channel.
