American Hired 4 Air-force Can I also get hired for tv host jobs?

Hi again.

You will be in the United Kingdom on what's known as a Status of Forces agreement that will permit you to work solely for the USAF.  Assuming you're not being paid to audition, I can't see you having a problem auditioning for any part.  Whether you need to be a member of Equity (the actors union) is something you should investigate.

The UK has recently massively overhauled its Immigration system and work visas as such have been replaced by a new Skilled Worker Visa and potentially a Creative worker visa (this is what sport professionals and entertainers use), the difference is that the Skilled Worker visa has no expiry date, you can currently re-apply every 5 years to renew and as long as you still meet the criteria remain ad-infinitum on that visa.  The Creative visa is only for 12 months, with a possibility to extend for a further 12 months after which you can no longer remain on that visa and must leave, or apply for a different visa.

I just checked the UK Gov website and "3413, Television Presenter" does feature as a recognised job, but I then check the actual eligibility list and while Television Producer and Television Engineer are listed as shortage occupations, TV presenter is not.  What that means is you cannot apply for a Skilled Worker visa.  So the Creative Visa would be your only way in on a work visa.  Whatever, here's a link to the UK Gov website, you can have a play with it yourself.

To be honest, I would have thought that if only because you have a much bigger starting base to look around, you would have had a better chance in the US than in the UK.  Regional TV (and Radio) here has shrunk beyond recognition.  Most of the operators are based in Media Centres with many services shared; most regional stations are automated; where I live now, the BBC are the only remaining operator, they are down to what appears to be 2 presenters and 1 weatherman.  The only US citizens I see working in the public arena here tend to be specialist journalists.  That said, I have a US passport (dual national), I sound like a Cockney, so there could be more.

Anyway, hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Hi Thank you for that information. Would I have to apply for it while in America though? As I  would be working in England for the USA air force lets say I found a television hosting gig would I be able to apply while in England?

Also, in reading you said media in the UK has shrunk so is they're not many television host shows like in America where we have tv presenters on national broadcast television and also on cable tv channels?

Hi again.

You were asking about auditioning, you don't need a visa to audition, you're not being paid, there is no work contract. Whether they will audition you when they look at your immigration status is another matter.  What we do know from the UK Gov website is that you (or a Television Presenter) doesn't qualify for a skilled migrant visa; the only other likely possibility is the Creative visa, to qualify for that visa, you must have been offered a job, so in your circumstances, no you can't apply in the USA before you leave for the UK.

I gave you the link to the UK Gov website, I advise you to read the link to the Creative visa, in particular, the eligibility section and see whether you qualify.

Job opportunities; the UK doesn't have the same TV structures as in the States; the majority of the cable networks have no presenters at all; they may share a voice-over role with other networks in the event of something needing to be said, like to introduce something unscheduled.  National networks tend to have voice-over between shows/segments; what Covid has taught them all is that they don't need to be in the studio to do it.  There are national shows that are hosted by celebrities - how they got their show I have no idea, but I suspect that their being a celebrity was a part of it.

Cynic
Expat Team

Hi,

Okay, then I thought if i was offered a job to host like let's says Good Morning Britian for example would I have to go back to America to apply for the creative visa but your saying because I would be already in the UK I would not have to?

That's good information to know though because I am not familiar with all the shows in the UK I know a few like good morning Britain, Lorraine, and some show that's with a panel of women. Are you familiar with the show red table talk in America ? Is there a show like that in England?

LOL - I'm impressed with your knowledge; I have to ask my wife as I don't watch "entertainment" TV in the UK - I think I worked overseas for too long and it just doesn't interest me anymore.

That panel of women is a show called Loose Women, Google has some stuff on it.  I've seen a couple of outtakes from your red table talk show, mainly when the subject was newsworthy over here.  As to do we have something similar - Loose Women has a bunch of loonie women sat around a table talking about nothing useful (no, I don't rate that either), so if you think that about the red table, then yes.  We used to have tabloid talk-shows, but they seem to have died off when their subjects began killing themselves 

There is a guy called Andrew Neil who is shortly going to open a news/current affairs channel in the UK; this link will take you to a wiki page all about him and his new channel; if I was a gambling man, I would bet the house on this being a massive success in the UK because he promises stuff that the other networks seem to be missing.  I have no contacts, but he's the current Chairman of The Spectator magazine, of which you may have heard, start asking around.

Okay, then thank you for that information it was very informative. So you guys don't have shows like in America like we have with Enews, entertainment tonight, etc those shows that come on each day talking about celebrities? Or I guess that would be like good morning Britian and loose women that do that ?

We have them, but not to the extent you guys do; here are some links to a couple:

BBC - Graham Norton
ITV - Jonathan Ross

That's about the sum of it.  Norton started his career as an actor; Ross came from the backrooms of TV research. (I got that from the Internet, as I said earlier, I'm not a big TV fan), but I have worked in broadcast radio.

Some channels broadcast US content (James Corden show), but nothing else much domestically produced; the death of tabloid TV kind of put an end to that.