ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the presenter-led shows and ones which operate similarly without that title, a few types of programmes lacking formally designated presenters have demanded attention. Presenters perform a valued function across television, guiding viewers through their programmes, directing them to matters of interest, introducing them to products and services and attracting viewers to watch in the first place. The corporality of the presenter, their gestural range, their habitual 'turns', may be as pleasurable to a viewer as any plot twist or helicopter shot of dramatic scenery. Television presenters probably cannot be successful if audience members fail to feel some degree of intimacy with them, but as careers lengthen, substantial levels of affection probably do appear. Intimacy at a distance shifts to a desire for a different type of encounter and well-known presenters can parlay this into a more diverse career. Presenters are so much a part of ordinary familiar lifeworld, we value their being a predictable element.
