Nesbitt worked as a sports reporter at BBC Northern Ireland and progressed to presenting Good Morning Ulster on BBC Radio Ulster from 1986 to 1990. Nesbitt joined UTV as a presenter and reporter in 1992, being joined by his wife Lynda Bryans to co-present evening news programmeUTV Live in 1996. Nesbitt and Bryans also co-presented weekly religious series Sunday Morning for Anglia Television from 1999 to 2001, and two series of home and garden series Home Sweet Home for UTV. Nesbitt also hosted Counterpoint and made a guest appearance in comedy programme Everything You Know Is Wrong in 1998. In 2006, Nesbitt announced he was not renewing his presenting contract with UTV. His final edition of UTV Live was broadcast on 10 February 2006.
Mike Nesbitt was elected as UUP party leader on 31 March 2012. He defeated South Down assembly member John McCallister with a final vote tally of 536 votes to 129. Nesbitt said he wanted the UUP to become "the party of choice for every pro-union voter in Northern Ireland". In April 2012, Nesbitt announced that he wanted to make history by being the first leader of his party to attend a Sinn Féinard fheis. He said: "We should be going to all the conferences of the main parties, not just the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats." Shortly after his election, Nesbitt received attention when he criticised the Alliance Party, a rival party of the UUP. He called them "unprincipled and driven by self-interest" and said they presided over "a catalogue of disasters". He challenged their commitment to its core policy of a shared future, saying "I can only imagine the disappointment of Alliance voters hoping for a principled stance on a shared future." An Alliance spokesman retorted, saying "In last year's election the public showed growing support for the Alliance Party. These criticisms come from a newly elected leader with little experience who leads a party that is in decline at a time when Alliance is in the ascendant. We will not, therefore, be responding to these silly remarks." Nesbitt has tried to present a unionism which is more accommodating to aspects of Irish culture; for example he visited the Gaeltacht Quarter on the Falls Road, Belfast as the first step in trying to overturn the perception of some that his party is hostile to the Irish language. Following the 2017 election, Nesbitt announced his intention to step down as party leader. Nesbitt is regarded as one of the more liberal unionists, he had previously stated his opposition to same-sex marriage, but spoke in favour in 2017. His appeal to change the hands of leadership in Northern Ireland with the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Alliance Party fell on the deaf ears of Northern Irish society in which the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin claimed an increased victory over the opposing parties. He has been compared to reforming and liberal Ulster Unionist PartyPrime Minister of Northern IrelandTerence O'Neill by some historians and politicians.
Personal life
Nesbitt was born in Belfast. He attended Campbell College, Belfast and studied at Jesus College, Cambridge. Since giving up broadcasting, Nesbitt and his wife set up their own independent media services company. Nesbitt worked for a public relations company between his careers at BBC Northern Ireland and UTV. In April 2010, Nesbitt revealed that he had 2 daughters from a previous marriage with whom he has had no contact since his divorce from their mother. Nesbitt has four children. Nesbitt is one of two leaders of the UUP not to be a member of the Orange Order, the other being the current leader, Steve Aiken.
