BBC Breakfast - 16th July onwards

I hate these highly selective ratings figures. The local news stations in the US do it all the time. There was one where the anchors were holding their index finger up and saying “thank you for making us #1”. However there’s no fine print. One station does include fine print that could claim total victory is that they win both total households share and the key demo 25-54 share.

It's an age old practice, and extends way beyond broadcasting

Exactly. If we're being selective based on the figures above compared to Day 1 of GMB Breakfast has gained 100k viewers whilst GMB has stayed exactly the same. Frankly now even if Breakfast replaced Dan and Louise with David Icke and Katie Hopkins I don't think ratings would move at all.

The tabloids do the same in the opposite direction as well though

I remember back when Daybreak and the early days of GMB were always on the edge of being axed, the tabloids would run stories like "The show reached a low of 300k last month"

Suggesting that was the norm, in reality the 300k was something like August Bank Holiday Monday or 27th December, but they wouldn't mention that.

Yes, looking around at ratings articles for GMB I've seen them comparing figures of 700-800k with Piers to 300k when they launched, even though they launched with figures of 700-800k.


I know with breakfast TV they used to do a reach rating too as back in the 90s they'd put them in the Radio Times and I think they ranged from around 5m for The Big Breakfast through to 12m or so for GMTV, but then you'd see other figures saying they got a tenth of that figure which must have been the average. It does make comparing breakfast TV and radio shows somewhat tricky now TV seems to stick to the average and radio just goes on reach.

Has the regional news returned yet to Breakfast? I'd have thought now the instructions have changed in England at least there is arguably a need for the return of local travel information.

No not yet, the best you got is the good morning Britain regional opt out

And London still has a merged bulletin from BBC South East during weekday lunchtime.

Doubt it, there is still not enough traffic to generate a traffic jam, at least outside of London

And despite worries, rail travel has apparently gone from about 1 person per train to about 5 per train at rush hour, again outside of London

Many of the traffic problems going by what I hear on the radio, are caused by accidents. I'm not surprised, the roads have been relatively empty, and some folk are driving at three figure speeds. It all ends in tears as usual

The only regular jams are on the roads near the rubbish tips!

And McDonalds drive-thrus reopening..

Does anyone know when the regional updates are likely to return to Breakfast? Watching this morning I couldn't help thinking that a few minutes opt-out for at least the nations would be beneficial, especially given that lockdown rules and restrictions now vary by nation. I guess what to do with viewers in England might be an issue, as not all regions may have sufficient staffing and content to fill the few minutes with local news.