Who will replace Mishal Husain on Today? These are the runners and riders

The departure of the presenter leaves a big hole to fill. Here’s who is tipped for the job on the BBC’s flagship radio show

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After 11 years of early-morning alarm calls, Mishal Husain is set to leave BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in the new year.
Her departure leaves Emma Barnett, Amol Rajan, Nick Robinson and Justin Webb as the only permanent presenters on the flagship news show, which attracts almost 6 million listeners each week. Martha Kearney left after the General Election in July.
It has been a bruising 2024 for Husain, 51, who said earlier this month that she had experienced more racism in the past year than at any point in her career. “That has been hard, and that’s given me pause,” she said as she accepted a journalism award.
The departure of Husain, the first Muslim woman to be a permanent fixture on Today and the second-most experienced host after Webb, leaves a large vacancy for the BBC to fill.
Here, The Telegraph assesses the runners and riders jockeying to be her replacement.
The BBC’s polyglot Europe editor, 52, has been a more than capable stand-in Today presenter in recent years and might fancy returning to the UK after a decade in Brussels. Having done previous stints reporting in both Eastern Europe and the Middle East, she would bring a wealth of knowledge to the programme as global geopolitics continues to descend into turmoil.
Fresh from her encounter with Jeremy Clarkson at Tuesday’s farmers’ protest, the 56-year-old Newsnight presenter may be looking for more secure employment after the current affairs programme was denuded of much of its staff and budget earlier this year. Unafraid of conducting punchy interviews, she also spent more than 15 years on Radio 5 live.
The former political editor has been the face of the Sunday morning politics show (succeeding Andrew Marr) for the past two years. Kuenssberg, 48, was widely tipped to take a slot on Today before she left full-time newsgathering in May 2022, but it is unclear whether she would now want to give up a cushy weekend job for relentless early starts.
Smith, 56, has been a near-constant presence on the airwaves in recent weeks as the North America editor covering the re-election of Donald Trump. The daughter of the late former Labour leader John Smith was only appointed as successor to Jon Sopel in November 2021 and would surely wish to chronicle the next four years of the Trump presidency, but may find the Today job security too good an offer to turn down.
Is a job swap in the offing? Husain has not given her Today colleagues an indication about what she will do next, but she has long been the Sunday evening presenter of the News at 10 and she impressed executives with her performances in the General Election campaign. Myrie, 60, has been seen as the natural successor to the disgraced Huw Edwards, but the Mastermind host would surely relish the bigger platform Today provides.
A wild card, but the 28-year-old social media investigations correspondent is highly thought of in W1A and already co-hosts the successful Americast with Webb. Spring has a light style and vast knowledge of modern media and how it shapes our politics. If this vacancy has come too early in her career, it surely won’t be long before she joins Today.
It would be a surprise if the Corporation hired an outsider to come straight into its biggest news programme – not least because it would annoy many of the big beasts in the newsroom – but ITV’s Etchingham has her admirers at Broadcasting House. The 55-year-old former BBC trainee is an accomplished presenter and reporter who always acquitted herself well hosting election leaders’ debates.
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