''The Context'' is a live current affairs programme that airs Monday to Thursday on the

BBC News Channel BBC News (also known as the BBC News Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television news channel for BBC News. It was launched as BBC News 24 on 9 November 1997 at 5:30 pm as part of the BBC's foray into digital domestic telev ...

BBC Parliament BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Select Committees of the British Parliament, the Scottish Parliamen ...

and

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and ...

. Under the names ''100 Days'', ''100 Days+'', ''Beyond 100 Days'' and ''BBC News with Katty and Christian'', it was jointly hosted live by

Katty Kay Katherine "Katty" Kay (born 14 November 1964) is a British-Swiss journalist, author and broadcaster. She presented BBC World News America and, with Christian Fraser, hosted ''Beyond 100 Days'' on BBC Four, BBC News and BBC World News. She has an ...

from Washington D.C. and Christian Fraser from London, and ran on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News from the inauguration of President Donald Trump until the departure of Kay from the BBC in June 2021. It focused on the current US Administration, global politics,

Brexit Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...

and news from around the world, with attempted punches of irreverent wit and fun. Fraser occasionally presented from

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

(during European Council meetings) and also from the BBC

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

Studio for a week during the

2018 North Korea–United States summit Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

. For a week in May 2018, Kay and Fraser were both presenting from London and

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

during the

wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was held on Saturday 19 May 2018 in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in the United Kingdom. The groom is a member of the British royal family; the bride is American and previously worked as an ...

. After having been off air for six months following Kay's departure, the programme was relaunched in January 2022 as ''Context'', later changed to ''The Context''. It is now presented by Christian Fraser alone, and like its predecessor, it airs at 21:00 GMT Monday to Thursday on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News.

History

The programme debuted in 2017 as ''100 Days'' and aired daily to document the first one hundred days of

US president The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

in administration. After the first 100 days of President Trump's presidency passed, the programme continued; it was briefly called ''100 Days+'' before it was launched in September 2017 as ''Beyond 100 Days'' in the same timeslot Monday to Thursday right after ''

Focus on Africa ''BBC Focus on Africa'' was a quarterly magazine established in 1990, based in London, UK, and available widely in Africa and in English-speaking countries globally. The magazine covered news, politics, economics, social events, culture and sport ...

'' and ''

BBC News at Six The ''BBC News at Six'' is the evening news programme bulletin from the BBC. Produced by BBC News, the programme is broadcast on the BBC News channel and on British television channel BBC One on weekdays at 6:00pm. For a long period, the ''BB ...

''. ''Beyond 100 Days'' was originally an edition of ''

World News Today ''World News Today'' is a current affairs news programme, produced by BBC News presented on Friday-Sundays with Philippa Thomas, Karin Giannone & Kasia Madera. Presenters alternate the weekend shifts. It was originally conceived as a morning ...

''. The programme also aired on other networks. It premiered on 2 January 2018 on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

stations in the United States. It appears that it had been cancelled on PBS after the introduction of an hour long ''

Amanpour & Company ''Amanpour & Company'' is a late-night global-affairs interview television program hosted by Christiane Amanpour. The hour-long show premiered on PBS on September 10, 2018, as an expanded version of the CNN International show ''Amanpour'', augm ...

'' programme debuted the week of 10 September 2018. It also aired on BBC Four. In late August to December 2019, Kay moved to Senegal with her family to write her latest book.

Michelle Fleury Michelle Fleury (born 1971) is a journalist who is the BBC's New York business correspondent and a reporter for BBC World News. In 2019, she co-hosted the BBC News programme '' Beyond 100 Days'' with Christian Fraser while Katty Kay had a three ...

was the main stand-in Washington anchor during this period. In March 2020, the programme was suspended due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, however, Kay and Fraser often co-presented a half-hour weekly look at what's going on both sides of the Atlantic at 19:30 on Thursday and/or Friday. On 17 August 2020, the programme returned as ''BBC News with Katty and Christian''. On 24 June 2021, the last programme in its previous format aired. In the back half of the final programme, frequent contributors

Jon Sopel Jonathan B. Sopel (born 22 May 1959) is a British journalist, television presenter and a former correspondent for BBC News. He was formerly the BBC's North America editor; chief political correspondent for the domestic news channel BBC News; a ...

and Ron Christie featured, as well as a compilation of some of the show's highlights over the years.

Format

The one hour-long programme originally aired at 19:00 GMT/BST weekdays on the

in the UK, which meant 14:00 EST on

. In August 2020, the show moved to 21:00 GMT/BST in the UK, which means 16:00 EST on BBC World News. Interviews were carried out both in the Washington studio and the London studio, with Kay and Fraser contributing to each other's interviews. Regular contributors to the programme included Ron Christie, a Republican strategist who served as a former adviser to

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

, BBC North America editor and relief presenter

, and political correspondents Rajini Vaidyanathan (

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

), Adam Fleming and Iain Watson (

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

). In mid-2019, Vaidyanathan moved to Delhi and left the programme and John Pienaar - a former contributor - left the BBC to join

Times Radio Times Radio is a British digital radio station owned by News UK. It is jointly operated by Wireless Group (which News UK acquired in 2016), ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. As of September 2022, the station broadcasts to a weekly audienc ...

Presenters

Former presenters

References

External links

* (BBC News)
''Beyond 100 Days''
(BBC World News) {{DEFAULTSORT:Context (BBC News programme), The 2017 British television series debuts 2020s British television series BBC World News shows British television news shows 2010s British political television series 2020s British political television series BBC television news shows British political television series 2010s American political television series 2020s American political television series English-language television shows Media about the Trump presidency