[4] Blue Peter currently airs weekly on Fridays in the United Kingdom on CBBC, a digital television channel.
The show is produced in a magazine format, often transmitting live, and features a combination of studio presentation, interviews and outside broadcasting items.
[5] In the early days, as the show ran continuously on a weekly basis, other presenters occasionally stepped in to give the regular team a break.
The role went to Anita West, who presented sixteen editions over a four-month period in 1962—the shortest tenure of any full-time presenter—before abruptly resigning due to her imminent divorce, something she had not revealed to the producers.
She also returned to Blue Peter on 16 October 1978 to co-present the live UK TV balloon release for the 20th anniversary.
[13] The only presenter to have been fired from Blue Peter mid-contract is Richard Bacon, who was dismissed from the show in 1998 after it emerged that he had taken cocaine.
[14] A number of other presenters have garnered negative publicity for aspects of their private lives, which has been described in some sections of the British media as the "curse of Blue Peter".
Indeed, Bacon's career survived his dismissal; he has since presented The Big Breakfast and Top of the Pops among numerous other radio and television shows, some of which were for the BBC.
[18] On 8 August 2013, Skelton announced on air that she was leaving the show in September after five years, to be replaced by Radzi Chinyanganya.