ABSTRACT
In recent years Panorama has been seen to be in the television doldrums, being consigned to a slot late on Sunday nights which attracted ever smaller audiences. However, it was re-launched in January 2007 to great fanfare, modestly described by its new presenter, Jeremy Vine, as ‘the biggest media event of 2007’.5 In its new incarnation Panorama lost 10 minutes of air-time (down from 40 to 30 minutes) but it gained in terms of the regularity of its appearance and a move from a Sunday to a Monday evening slot. As to audiences, it has attracted a younger profile and it has added around 400,000 to take its average to around 3 million viewers, not sensational, but, in a multi-channel environment, quite a respectable performance. However, an analysis of the programmes broadcast in 2007 raises questions about the extent to which it has lived up to its claim to be an ‘investigative show’.
