Fiona Bruce is viewers’ pick as sexiest news star
THE BBC’s Fiona Bruce hit the top of the ratings yesterday when she was voted Britain’s sexiest female newsreader.
The 49-year-old presenter headed a poll by 2,000 viewers to discover the best-looking news anchors and reporters.
Second was ITV’s Natasha Kaplinsky, 40, while third place went to the BBC’s Kate Silverton, 42 – once voted FHM magazine’s “middle aged minx of the month”. Rival breakfast hosts Susanna Reid, 42, of the BBC and Daybreak’s Kate Garraway, 46, also made the top five.
Sky News’s tall dark and handsome Dermot Murnaghan, 55, was named the sexiest male, with ITV’s Mark Austin, 54, and George Alagiah, 57, from the BBC following close behind in the poll, commissioned to mark the launch of US series The Newsroom on Blu-ray and DVD. Robert Cole, former BBC and Sky News news editor, said: “Having the right person fronting the show is important and can be the deciding factor when people choose which news programme to watch.
“And it seems for some people it helps if that person is good looking.”
One in three viewers told researchers they would watch a different channel if their favourite news reader changed jobs.
The poll revealed that the average adult watches just over three hours of news a week with BBC the most popular – perhaps because of the Fiona factor.
But the survey also showed that when not taking looks solely into consideration, the all-time favourite newsreader is still Sir Trevor McDonald, 73.