The Alex Salmond Show

The Alex Salmond Show is a UK weekly political talk show hosted by former First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond which premiered on RT on 16 November 2017. The guests have included various political and public figures.

The Alex Salmond Show
GenreTalk show
Presented byAlex Salmond
StarringTasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original language(s)English
No. of seasons1
Production
Executive producer(s)Maureen Goldthorpe
Producer(s)Slainte Media
Production location(s)Millbank Tower, London
Various[1]
CinematographyEmil Kunda
Editor(s)Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Miren Patel
Gustavo Adolfo
Hass Alkatib
Camera setupJean Jaques Gonfier
Stavros Michaelides
Christian Smith
Rafal Gabzdyl
Running time30 minutes
Release
Original networkRT
Picture format1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Audio formatStereo
Original release16 November 2017 –
present
External links
Official website

The show airs every Thursday on RT UK at 07:30, 12:30 and 22:30. The show is produced by Slainte Media, a production company co-owned by Salmond and former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.[2][3]

History

On 9 November 2017, the RT channel (formerly known as Russia Today) launched The Alex Salmond Show, with the first episode airing a week later.

Salmond stated that his performance at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe Festival as part of his Alex Salmond: Unleashed tour inspired him to create the talk show.

Salmond's successor as Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said she would have advised against his decision to host a programme on RT. Salmond was criticised by Scottish politicians from the other parties for a perceived lack of judgement.[3] The first show was broadcast on 16 November 2017; the main interviewee was Carles Puigdemont, the former president of Catalonia.

Premise

The show begins with Alex Salmond greeting the audience, he then reads tweets, letters and e-mails that are sent in by members of the public, afterwards, Alex Salmond introduces the State Your Case section of the show where he introduces a fellow guest who expresses their opinions on a certain subject and afterwards Salmond and the guest would discuss and debate on the issue raised. Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh then introduces a topical political issue and interviews an individual involved in that subject. Salmond would then engage the guest with a friendly chat about the guest's personal life.

Reception

The first episode of the programme received mixed reviews. Many viewers praised the subject of LGBT rights being raised as well as praising Salmond for interviewing ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont.

Controversy and criticism

Broadcast on RT

After it was announced that The Alex Salmond Show would be airing on RT, Salmond received cross-party criticism from politicians and journalists who accused him of launching a new programme on a "Kremlin propaganda channel". A number of invited guests (including former Prime Minister David Cameron, Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow and ministers from the Scottish Government) rejected offers to appear on the show as it was being aired on RT.[4]

In the wake of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, critics called for Salmond to cancel The Alex Salmond Show with some raising questions regarding editorial independence. Salmond defended the show and insisted that he had full editorial control of the programme with no interference from RT.[5][6]

Ofcom investigation

After the first episode had aired, it emerged that tweets and e-mails which Salmond read out on the show had not actually been sent in by members of the public. One was presented as coming from a Twitter account that did not appear to have posted it, while a second only appeared online several hours after the programme was broadcast.[7] After an investigation, the media regulator Ofcom declared that the show had breached broadcasting rules by being "materially misleading" and undermining viewers' trust.[8] However, RT criticised Ofcom's investigation and attributed the issue to a "trivial teething problem."[8]

References
  1. The show is also filmed in other locations outside of the main studio
  2. Slainte Media Ltd entry on Open Corporates.
  3. "Nicola Sturgeon questions Alex Salmond's choice of Russian TV channel". BBC News. 10 November 2017. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
  4. "David Cameron rejects Alex Salmond's offer to be guest on RT show". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 2017-11-17.
  5. Moore, Aoife (2018-03-15). "Alex Salmond defends Russia Today show after nerve agent attack". Daily Record. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  6. "Alex Salmond defends Russia Today show: 'I hold no brief from Kremlin'". iNews. 2018-03-15. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  7. Johnson, Simon (2017-11-16). "Alex Salmond in 'fake news' row after first talk show on Kremlin-funded TV channel". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2017-11-17.
  8. "Salmond TV show tweets 'misleading'". BBC News. 16 July 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
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