An "unknown" gadget reviewer has been signed up as a BBC presenter after her video weblogs were spotted on YouTube.
Susi Weaser impressed producer Mike Worsley, who said her "upbeat, quirky" style was perfect for Sunday lifestyle show Something for the Weekend.
She was believed to be the first person plucked from the video-sharing site to be a host on mainstream UK TV, he said.
"All her videos were already online so we had an idea of how she would be before we had even met her," he added.
Talent search
Mr Worsley, who works for programme-maker Princess Productions, said he had ventured online while looking for gadget companies, reviewers and bloggers.
He had spotted Ms Weaser's technology reviews for the Shiny Shiny website, which had also been posted on YouTube.
"I wouldn't say that I had ever done that before. It wasn't my first port of call but it was a great discovery nonetheless," he told the BBC News website.
"Because the videos were quite short at a minute long, it was exactly the sort of demonstration we wanted on the programme.
"It was like having a showreel online, and we got her in and screen-tested her, and she was great.
"She's young, she's female - which is nice in that field as well because typically it'd be a guy that you would presume would be doing something like that - and she's been very popular."
He said Ms Weaser would be featuring during the BBC2 programme's current 10-week run and was likely to return next year for a second series, which had already been commissioned.
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