Adams started her media career as a graduate trainee at Central Television, concentrating on political and news journalism: her first coup was a one-hour interview with Margaret Thatcher. For the next few years, Adams remained focused on hard news when, in early 1988, moved to Scottish Television's nightly news programme, Scotland Today . She was one of the first journalists on the scene of the Lockerbie disaster in 1988. In 1992, a chance opportunity to host a discussion show for Scottish Television, after its original anchor Sheena McDonald left, set her off on a different path. Scottish Women ran for six years under Adams' chair (1993–99), won a number of awards and marked the start of Adams' career as a talk show host. [3]
Since her original success with Scottish Women, Adams has presented ITV Weekend Live, three series of Central Weekend Live with Nicky Campbell and John Stapleton; Esther , latterly Kaye for BBC Two; and Pride and Prejudice for BBC Scotland. Adams co-presented the last ever This Morning before Richard and Judy left, while, in 2002, she was This Morning's daily live anchor from Australia, reporting on the first series of I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! . She has also appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank . [5]
Between 1999 and 2006, Adams anchored the ITV talk show Loose Women where, combined with the rest of the female panel, she created a popular and engaging mix of topical issues and entertainment. On 5 November 2013, Adams returned to the panel, in rotation with Carol Vorderman and Andrea McLean. In January 2014, former Loose Woman Ruth Langsford returned to co-anchor the programme with Adams, Vorderman and McLean in rotation. Vorderman left the show in July 2014.
Adams has also presented a daytime show called The People Versus , [6] as well as appearing as a panellist, and latterly as host of Have I Got News for You .
Between 2007 and 2010, Adams regularly guest hosted and was a panellist on the Channel 5 panel show The Wright Stuff .
In late 2008, Adams narrated a six-part documentary series, The Merchant Navy, on STV.
On 26 May 2009, Adams returned to STV, more than 20 years after her first appearance on the station, as a guest co-host on the lifestyle programme The Hour with Stephen Jardine. Adams presented four shows. In August of that year, Adams joined a long team of reporters on The One Show .
Having reported on the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 for STV, Adams narrated a special documentary, The Lockerbie Bomber: Sent Home to Die for the Scottish television channel, which aired on 9 August 2010. The programme examined the Lockerbie bomber's conviction and the renewed controversy over the Scottish Government's decision to send him home to Libya on compassionate grounds a year earlier.
Since 2011, she has guest presented Channel 5's LIVE with... programme.
In 2013, Adams co-hosted the daytime chat show Sunday Scoop with Nadia Sawalha. [7]
Both Sawalha and Adams are represented by Nicola Ibison of Ibison Talent Group, who acts as both their agent and management. [8] Adams and Sawalha released a cookery book in 2018 called Nadia & Kaye: Disaster Chef.
In March 2010, Adams joined BBC Radio Scotland to become the host of daily phone-in programme, Call Kaye. [3] The show ended in 2015, and was then replaced by the launch of The Kaye Adams Show, which runs every weekday from 9 am to 12 pm. Kaye is often covered for by a guest host, particularly on a Friday, due to her work on Loose Women.
In 2022, Adams was a contestant on the twentieth series of Strictly Come Dancing . She was paired with Kai Widdrington, and was first to be eliminated.
