BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour host Emma Barnett is joining the Today programme’s presenting team ahead of Martha Kearney’s departure this year.
Barnett will join the Today programme in May and will also front TV documentaries and cross-platform interviews for the BBC as part of an expanded role.
The BBC announced last month that Kearney is planning to leave the Today programme after six years following the upcoming UK general election (the date of which is not yet known, although it must be by 28 January 2025). She will continue to present other programmes on Radio 4 such as countryside magazine programme Open Country and new nature-focused interview show This Natural Life.
Barnett, who was quickly named as a frontrunner after the news of Kearney’s departure, said: “We are living in volatile times where sometimes even asking a question can seem risky – wrongly so. My ambition on the Today programme is to keep asking the questions that listeners want answers to – as well as raising many smiles along the way – while armed with a very strong cup of tea.”
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Barnett will join Today’s other main presenters: Nick Robinson, Amol Rajan, Justin Webb and Mishal Husain.
Emma Barnett award win for Woman’s Hour
Barnett, who has been the main presenter of Woman’s Hour since January 2021, said her time on the show “means a great deal to me and I want to thank the team and our mighty army of listeners for how much we have shared – the joy, wisdom, sorrow and sometimes sheer rage.
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“I will carry so many of those moments with me for the rest of my life – chief amongst them conducting Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s first interview after her long-awaited release from prison in Iran; making a rare and special conversation happen with Kate Bush and reflecting the overwhelming response to the rape, abduction and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.
“I will greatly miss being within the rare and unique space Woman’s Hour provides, where most days anything can happen and routinely does. All power to the next person gifted the opportunity.”
Barnett won the Interviewer of the Year prize at the British Journalism Awards 2021 for her Woman’s Hour interviews with Lady Lavinia Nourse, Nadine Dorries and Tracey Emin.
The judges said her “rigorous research and attention to detail is evident in every interview as she tirelessly gets answers to the questions that matter for her audience”.
The BBC said it will begin the recruitment process for a new Woman’s Hour presenter and wants to hear from “experienced live broadcasters who have strong journalistic credentials, warmth and gravitas”.
BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness said: “Emma is a formidable, fearless and ferociously intelligent journalist and I’m delighted that she will be showcasing her considerable talents across all of BBC News’ platforms.”
Barnett has previously hosted her own Radio 5 Live programme, presented Newsnight, and anchored the BBC’s radio coverage of the 2019 election alongside James Naughtie.
In the latest RAJAR radio listening figures for Q4 2023, the Today programme saw its weekly weekday reach down by 9% compared to the previous year to 5.6 million although it stayed relatively steady compared to Q3, growing by 1%.
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