Midterm

Charlotte Brereton

Midterm

I have always been interested to go into the TV hosting career.  It isn’t something that I have just dawned on wanting to do but I have wished for this career for as long as I can remember. Before doing any experience in this line of work I didn’t really know what to expect, all I knew was I wanted to be in front of the camera but instead of acting to be someone else or another role I wanted to be myself, talk and interview people and interact with an audience.  

  I started getting an idea of what this line of work really entailed when I was 17 years old. I booked myself in for a TV hosting course which involved me writing my own scripts, working with a tele-prompter, random interviews on the streets of London, being in front of a green screen, improvisation, interviewing various celebrities and working with the camera on site. This didn’t scare me but fed my hunger for this career choice. I walked away from that course with my diploma in TV hosting, presenting and interviewing making me feel more confident than ever.

  I have always admired Fearne Cotton. Fearne is a British female TV host who started her way into the industry working on radio, as like I did. She works on shows like Britain’s got talent, Smile TV and The X Factor. These are exactly the type of shows I would love to finally work for, something that isn’t too serious like the news but something people enjoy watching and puts a smile on their face. Fearne Cotton, 27, the DJ who is a distant relative of Sir Bill Cotton, the late BBC executive, is believed to have doubled her salary to £200,000 after winning the mid-morning slot on Radio 1 currently held by Jo Whiley.

 I understand that this industry doesn’t pay a lot unless you are the top of your game, in fact it can be quite a low paid job, so this is why I intend on making it to the top. Some TV hosts that seem to making they worth  include Kate Silverton, 39, the £250,000-a-year newsreader, and Anne Robinson, 64, who was earning £2m a year presenting The Weakest Link but is now also to host Watchdog.

  The starting salary for a TV host is said to be anywhere from $31,150 to $70,337. This is encouraging for me but I would like to make sure I am working for a big station, even if I start at the bottom odf the pile I will work my way up.