Channel Ten surprised even themselves when they announced on The Project that they would be starting their new early morning news program Breakfast today, off the back of news that Kevin Rudd had resigned as Foreign Minister. Not a bad move for a soft launch, allowing them to get a couple of days in early and find their feet.
The show was engaging and interesting, the set was distracting, and the three central hosts Andrew Rochford, Paul Henry and Kathryn Robinson struggled a little to find their feet with each other though that will come with time. Time is the key element here – many are wondering how long Ch10 will give the show to prove itself against commercial rivals Sunrise on Ch7 & Today on Ch9. If the Ch10 bosses knee jerk on it due to ratings it won’t have the chance to develop the ‘maturity’ the other programs deliver.
A sign of this maturity is reflected in how the shows carried the hastily delivered press conferences from Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd. It was announced early that the PM would deliver a conference at 9am Adelaide time (which quickly became 9:45am), and Rudd dropped another surprise press conference at just after 9am AEST. Both Ch7 & Ch9 carried the press conferences live into all eastern states and South Australia, but Ch10 pushed on with a delayed telecast in Qld & SA. It was a tough decision that just felt wrong.
The press release afterwards was quite bouyant:
IT’S GAME ON! BREAKFAST LAUNCHES ON TEN
TEN promised to deliver a show that was unexpected and at 6am this morning, Breakfast lived up to its name.
Following yesterday’s surprise resignation of Kevin Rudd, Breakfast with Paul Henry, Andrew Rochford and Kathryn Robinson launched 4 days ahead of schedule.
Dominated by the political story of the day, guest line-up included political heavyweight Julie Bishop, Labor party strategist Bruce Walker and Labor senator Doug Cameron.
In case you missed Breakfast, see full interviews on the website www.tenbreakfast.com.au
A shame they got Bruce Hawker’s name wrong. Not like he was their first guest ever or anything.
There’s some parts to tighten, and the hosts will find their metre with each other. The graphics are very colourful. On the whole Breakfast was an enjoyable alternative to the other offerings available at the same time. It will indeed be interesting to see what the audience thought of it by way of ratings tomorrow morning.
I caught enough to know that I won’t bother catching any more. Might be watchable, but for Henry. Utter tool.
I’m hooked…even getting up earlier to catch more of it…and LOVE Paul Henry
Pretty good show considering it’s only the first week. Remember how shocking Stevonovik was (and now how BORING he and Co are..)
Just watchout for an interview where Paul Henry tears a person/politician apart, he’s well known for lulling people into a false sense of security and then kicking there butt!! A very clever and infectious guy.
WELL DONE CHANNEL TEN. Build it and they will come…!
I was not impressed with the 10 minutes of this new breakfast show.
While the colours shown in the promo’s and background theming worked well and we’re complimentary that is about as far as my comments go. Now like most people I like to watch a quick bit of breakfast TV and while I am not the greatest fan of Sunrise (Channel 7) I will admit that I am happy to sit down with a piece of toast and watch a few minutes of Today (Channel 9). However I believe that Channel’s Tens view of selecting the hosts for ‘Breakfast’ was a poor choice. The guy in the middle of it all (Paul Henry) looks like he couldn’t care less about anything (indeed in one shot he was just sitting there no expression on his face while everyone else talked) and when he makes jokes (which are deadpan and dry) he tends to wait for everyone else to congratulate him on how funny and witty he is. In my view not great breakfast TV.
The format to me came across a little strange as well, as it didn’t appear to flow (but this may be more to do with the show finding its feet more than anything else.
Personally I think that Paul should move to current affairs and a timeslot more suited to his talents, Andrew Rochford is good but appears to be attempting to cover for Pauls attitude and that make him come off looking a bit to amateur, however I thought that Kathryn Robinson did well in a bad situation.
Overall I will steer clear of Tens new ‘Breakfast’ and wait till they get a little more mature and put a cast together that can properly fit breakfast with a channel 10 flavour…