The Alex Salmond Show

The Alex Salmond Show was 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 show airs every Thursday on RT UK at 07:30, 12:30 and 22:30. The show was produced by Slainte Media, a production company co-owned by Salmond and former SNP MP Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh.[2][3] On 24 February 2022, it was announced that the show was suspended on RT until further notice in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4]

The Alex Salmond Show
GenreTalk show
Presented byAlex Salmond
StarringTasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
Production
Executive producerMaureen Goldthorpe
ProducerSlainte Media
Production locations
CinematographyEmil Kunda
Editors
  • Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
  • Miren Patel
  • Gustavo Adolfo
  • Hass Alkatib
Camera setup
  • Jean Jaques Gonfier
  • Stavros Michaelides
  • Christian Smith
  • Rafal Gabzdyl
Running time30 minutes
Release
Original networkRT (2017‒2022)
Original release16 November 2017 (2017-11-16) –
24 February 2022 (2022-02-24)

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.

On 24 February 2022, the show was suspended until further notice in response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict after Salmond received criticism for not taking action in the days preceding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4]

On 11 July 2023, more than a year after the show ended, Salmond started a new show on all social media platforms, Scotland Speaks with Alex Salmond, seen as a natural successor to The Alex Salmond Show that was also hosted by Salmond and Ahmed-Sheikh and produced by Slainte Media. It first aired on 13 July 2023 and featured a similar format to the show albeit having a smaller budget and studio.[5][6]

Premise

The show typically begins with Alex Salmond greeting the audience then reading 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. Salmond and the guest would then discuss and debate on the issue. Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh then introduces a topical political issue and interviews an individual involved in that subject. Salmond then engages the guest with a friendly chat about the guest's personal life.

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, House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow and ministers from the Scottish Government) rejected offers to appear on the show as it was being aired on RT.[7]

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.[8][9]

Russia-Ukraine conflict criticism

Further criticism was drawn of the programme being broadcast on RT in February 2022 in response to the Ukraine-Russia crisis. First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon said that it was "appalling" that Salmond was still broadcasting the show on the network.[10] Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton called for Salmond's membership of the Privy Council to be revoked in response to his continuation of his role on RT.[11] This was later reiterated by MPs in the House of Commons on 23 February 2022.

On 24 February 2022, Salmond announced that he would suspend the show until further notice in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[12]

Ofcom investigation

After the first episode had aired, it emerged that tweets and e-mails that 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.[13] After an investigation, the media regulator Ofcom found that the show had breached broadcasting rules by being "materially misleading" and undermining viewers' trust.[14] However, RT criticised Ofcom's investigation and attributed the issue to a "trivial teething problem."[14]

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. "Alex Salmond suspends RT show over Ukraine invasion". BBC News. 24 February 2022. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  5. "Alex Salmond to relaunch broadcast career with social media only programme". HeraldScotland. 12 July 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  6. "Can Alex Salmond shake yesterday's man label as new programme launches?". HeraldScotland. 13 July 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
  7. Macnab, Scott (15 November 2017). "David Cameron rejects Alex Salmond's offer to be guest on RT show". The Scotsman.
  8. Moore, Aoife (15 March 2018). "Alex Salmond defends Russia Today show after nerve agent attack". Daily Record. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  9. "Alex Salmond defends Russia Today show: 'I hold no brief from Kremlin'". iNews. 15 March 2018. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  10. "Sturgeon 'appalled' by Salmond continuing to host show on RT". BBC News. 24 February 2022.
  11. Hutcheon, Paul (23 February 2022). "Alex Salmond faces call to be expelled from Privy Council over RT work". Daily Record. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  12. McKenzie, Lewis (24 February 2022). "Alex Salmond's show on Russian-state backed broadcaster RT suspended". STV News. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  13. Johnson, Simon (16 November 2017). "Alex Salmond in 'fake news' row after first talk show on Kremlin-funded TV channel". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
  14. "Salmond TV show tweets 'misleading'". BBC News. 16 July 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
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