Sky Sports News is undergoing a major redundancy programme, resulting in the departure of seven senior broadcasters.
Long-serving presenter Rob Wotton, with 30 years at the broadcaster, announced his tearful exit live on air earlier this month.
Presenters Teddy Draper (18 years) and Jasper Taylor (11 years), senior reporters Jeremy Langdon (over 20 years) and Melissa Reddy (3 years), reporter Fadumo Olow, and producer Nick Lustig are also leaving.
Alan Myers also revealed he will be leaving Sky Sports News after 23 years in the job.
Announcing his decision on Twitter, Myers wrote: ‘After a 23 year association I have decided to leave Sky Sports News. Difficult decision but one that I felt was right.
‘It’s been such a fantastic experience from my first report at a Bolton Wanderers outwood bound course, to World Cup. Finals, ECL Finals and everything in between!
‘I couldn’t wish to have worked for a better company with the most talented and professional colleagues. I thank every one of them for their support and friendship over many years.
‘It’s been a blast and I have some incredible memories, worked on some headline stories and visited over 30 countries, thank you.’
Wotton, Draper, and Taylor’s departures are part of a voluntary redundancy programme. Wotton’s show, The Football Show, has been axed.
Sky stated the changes aim to make the organisation more agile to better serve audiences, not primarily for cost-cutting.
After 27 years at Sky Sports, Rob Wotton signed off on his final ‘Football Show’ today ❤️
We took this chance to reflect on his greatest moments throughout his time here 🍿
Thank you and all the best for the future Rob! 😊 pic.twitter.com/esHs8EXRW2
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) May 26, 2025
Presenter Wotton fought back tears as he signed the show off and his career on Sky for the final time.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure,” Wotton said. “I came here in my 20s and I thought I was only coming for a couple of weeks.
“And look, they haven’t been able to get rid of me. I keep turning up, maybe one day they’ll pay me!”
He received a fitting farewell on The Football Show, hosted with Stephen Warnock and Sue Smith, which was popular with former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, particularly for its ‘Ref Watch’ segment featuring ex-official Dermot Gallagher.
The show’s cancellation by Sky Sports has sparked confusion and dismay among staff, as part of a broader restructuring to attract younger audiences by favouring YouTubers and influencers over traditional formats.
Gallagher’s Ref Watch will continue in a new format elsewhere.
Mark Alford, director of Sky Sports News, said: “We would like to thank each of our colleagues for their huge contribution to Sky Sports News over the years. We wish them all the best for their future endeavours.”
A Sky Sports News spokesperson told The Daily Mail: “We’ve shared proposals with the Sky Sports News team to change how we’re structured, aimed at making us more agile and better equipped to serve audiences across TV, digital and social. A small number of roles are impacted, and we are now entering a period of consultation with those colleagues.”
Figures released by Ofcom in 2024 showed that less than half of 16 to 24-year-olds now watch broadcast TV in an average week.
Sky Sports managing director, Jonathan Licht, told the Telegraph in 2024: “Generationally, there comes a time where the people that have been on screen for long periods and people that we’ve been hugely grateful for their exceptional service, there’s going to be points of natural change.
“What happened last year… I think people were joining lots of dots that didn’t necessarily exist. There were different circumstances.”
Sky Sports have been through a number of changes in the last few years, with the likes of Bianca Westwood, Guy Havord, Dickie Davis, Greg Whelan and Jaydee Dyer leaving back.
The much loved Jeff Stelling left, with Simon Thomas replacing him on Soccer Saturday.
We also saw Sky get rid of Soccer AM back in 2023 with presenters Jimmy Bullard and John “Fenners” Fendley losing their jobs.
At the time, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher also admitted concerns over their future at Sky Sports after the broadcaster’s recent presenter exodus.
Neville told FourFourTwo: ‘I don’t really think about how long it’s been. But it is hard, you know. It’s not playing football, it’s not being a manager, but anyone who looks at it and thinks, ‘Oh, they’re just on television, talking about football’… well, yeah, OK.
‘But there are thousands of jobs all over the world now doing this, so to stay at Sky, the Premier League rights-holders in this country, and on shows like Super Sunday and Monday Night Football, the demands are high.
‘To stay there for several years is an achievement, because it’s probably a gig that most people would want. If you think of the top gigs in football punditry, there’s only three or four.
‘Working on major tournaments, Match of the Day, Monday Night Football – they’re the pinnacle of football broadcasting.
‘We know it will be taken away from us the minute it doesn’t work any more, so we’re very conscious of making sure we change things all of the time.’
Carragher added: ‘Yeah, we know what viewers think because we’re viewers ourselves, and you don’t want to watch exactly the same thing every single season.
‘I don’t want to do that and I don’t think Gary does. We always want new ideas, different guests, different formats.
‘Friday Night Football, which we’ve done for the last three or four years, was a good example: the format was completely different to the other shows that we do.’
Back in 2020 with the departures of Phil Thompson, Charlie Nicholas and Matt Le Tissier.
Here’s how fans reacted to SEVEN Sky Sports News presenters leaving in a major shake-up with a show also axed…
@chiragcp1982: Sky sports losing plot with way they present shows and stuff now.
@GOverload85653: Sky sports has being dead for years now
@_liam94: Not being sexist as there are many fantastic female presenters and jurnos but she really is a very poor one
@BigT_soprano: SKY is in the gutter and very almost going out of existence.. the news channel needed bailing out with 70m losses. absolutely glorious stuff.
@______Shiv: They say they want to adapt to the new younger audience. But they ignore the fact that as one of the leading broadcasters in this country, they’re responsible for also targeting multiple other audiences. If its not broken, don’t fix it. They’ve broken it and keep breaking it
@Nazira_Yusuf22: Sky Sports has been on the decline for years, but now it really feels like the end. Axing classics like Soccer AM, Sunday Supplement, and Goals on Sunday to make room for YouTubers/influencers was bad enough but now @ALOTO is gone too… Gutted. 😢
@Sky_Blue_Steve: Get rid of @GNev2 absolute clown 🤡
@SirLeonP: No one wants to watch amateur YouTube pundits on Sky. Unless Carra, Neville, Keane etc are talking I’m not watching punditry.
@UtdFan90: Replacing them with more YouTubers and twitter trolls?
@1986_legend: Sky sports has been stagnating for years. They need a mix up. But I don’t want more YouTubers on there either. I like the changes they made at soccer Saturday although I know alot of people preferred Geoff and the boys but I do like the current line up.
@gazzor72: Please be Carragher and @GNev2 🤞 🤞
@theWishyman80: I would imagine to all be replaced by YouTubers and fan cammers. Hold on to your hats, folks
HAVE YOUR SAY –
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