I think daytime presenters partly end up excavating so much of their personalities because there’s so much airtime to fill. The golden rule is that big experiences in one’s life have to be shared with the viewers.
Fern Briton fell foul of that really when she didn’t tell viewers about her gastric band, especially as she’d always been so open about her attempts to shed weight. And she made it worse by suggesting her drastic weight loss was solely down to cycling. Then when she finally spoke about it the day following the Sunday tabloid ‘exposé’, she was sort of flippant about it not being a big deal to the viewers.
We tune into the likes of This Morning and Lorraine not just to keep up to date with the latest news but also to see what Philip and Holly have been up to in the last 24 hours. We are given access to their moods, their activities and their emotions.
We feel for them (*) we cheer for them, we weep for them to such a point that we feel we
are
them and that our lives, our existences are subsumed.
I couldn't care less about the antics of messers Schofield and Willoughby, while I respect some people find this interesting, this is why I'm not the target audience for that show.
To my mind a presenter doesn't have to reveal every aspect of their lives to be a popular and successful one and personally If she had either a live or pre-recorded show then she wouldn't change her on-screen persona.
Keeping your private life private is something to be admired, but it does shut off a certain degree of accessibility common with most daytime presenters. If the audience cannot relate to her, that could be a problem.
I think the core of the issue lies in Stephanie's position. As a member of the Breakfast team she played a secondary role to Bill and Susanna etc so the focus was on them and not her. Once you bring her out onto her own show she has to bear the brunt.
I’ve sampled it now. Never really seen her on TV before as I don’t watch Breakfast. Thought she comes across really well & she’s very likeable.
The problem is the show & the slot/channel IMO. I wouldn’t go to C4 during DT for that type of show, it would probably be rating higher on C5. The format is too pedestrian. Doesn’t stand out.
Studio/set; nice but too cavernous for daytime.
Even if the show was superb, still a tough slot on C4 for this type of programme. Nice to have a programme like this coming from somewhere other than London though.
It is so competitive out there, and she needs to make some headlines. Look how much publicity GMB, This Morning, Loose Women, etc, get online.
Nothing sums up a flop like the press not even caring that your show is a flop. Usually media reporters love being able to write about shows and channels with zero viewers but I'm finding literally nothing on this.
I just don't see why Steph should suddenly be discussing recipes with chefs or fronting live competitions from a shopping centre. Her main "brand" if you like was as a business presenter on BBC Breakfast. There and in radio shows like "Wake up to Money" she took what could be quite dull subjects to a majority of the public and made them more accessible and easier to understand. She injected personality where there hadn't really been much before. That's why she broke through.
Perhaps though she wants to move on from just being a "business presenter" and break through into the mainstream, hence why she took this opportunity at C4. Yes, it's not working out with this show, but long term will probably serve her better than another year on the Breakfast sofa.
There are also the real world considerations of her now having a baby and how compatible that might be for her with a breakfast TV role, plus of course with all the cuts at the BBC there is no guarantee how long the business presenter role will last on Breakfast - if they had to cut one presenting role from the show you'd imagine that might be the first to go.
Wouldn't "the channel 4 spin" on daytime be to just nick 'This Morning' lock, stock and barrel from ITV?
This Morning seems to be increasingly tailoring itself to every "Karen" on facebook. Their gas lighting topical debates are starting to feel like TalkRadio on TV and I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Alex youknowwho started popping up on there before too long. The most obvious route for Channel 4 to have gone down would have been a 'Black This Morning'. There must be a sizable black daytime audience who are looking for an alternative This Mornings white nonsense.
Am I just being slightly dim or out-of-touch not knowing who 'Alex youknowwho' is supposed to be refering to?
Wouldn't "the channel 4 spin" on daytime be to just nick 'This Morning' lock, stock and barrel from ITV?
This Morning seems to be increasingly tailoring itself to every "Karen" on facebook. Their gas lighting topical debates are starting to feel like TalkRadio on TV and I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Alex youknowwho started popping up on there before too long. The most obvious route for Channel 4 to have gone down would have been a 'Black This Morning'. There must be a sizable black daytime audience who are looking for an alternative This Mornings white nonsense.
Am I just being slightly dim or out-of-touch not knowing who 'Alex youknowwho' is supposed to be refering to?
This whole situation does strike me as another example of a broadcaster 'buying the hype' about a presenter again and it won't be the first or the last time.
Steph seemed to be fairly popular on Breakfast (though also to have her fair share of critics who could find her segments a bit 'dumbed down') and by all accounts seems a fine presenter but it was the format that was the star. The people watching the show purely for Steph would have been a tiny minority.
It seems that Channel 4 swallowed the hype whole and thought they could put her on any format and it would be at least a moderate success. And by all accounts this programme sounds like complete and utter blandness that Steph never really stood much of a chance hosting and is far too long for such a new show finding its feet.
It is so competitive out there, and she needs to make some headlines. Look how much publicity GMB, This Morning, Loose Women, etc, get online.
Nothing sums up a flop like the press not even caring that your show is a flop. Usually media reporters love being able to write about shows and channels with zero viewers but I'm finding literally nothing on this.
I just don't see why Steph should suddenly be discussing recipes with chefs or fronting live competitions from a shopping centre. Her main "brand" if you like was as a business presenter on BBC Breakfast. There and in radio shows like "Wake up to Money" she took what could be quite dull subjects to a majority of the public and made them more accessible and easier to understand. She injected personality where there hadn't really been much before. That's why she broke through.
Perhaps though she wants to move on from just being a "business presenter" and break through into the mainstream, hence why she took this opportunity at C4. Yes, it's not working out with this show, but long term will probably serve her better than another year on the Breakfast sofa.
There are also the real world considerations of her now having a baby and how compatible that might be for her with a breakfast TV role, plus of course with all the cuts at the BBC there is no guarantee how long the business presenter role will last on Breakfast - if they had to cut one presenting role from the show you'd imagine that might be the first to go.
I wasn’t arguing that she should have stayed at Breakfast though. I agree with all your points, and I also think it was the right thing for Steph to move on when she did - she had outgrown being the business presenter on Breakfast. The shame is that what she moved into isn’t right, and I think that’s a misstep on the part of the Channel and/or the producers rather than Steph herself.
I hope they find a format that works for her because as LondonViewer pointed out she’s extremely likeable and talented. But my initial point was that her main talent and ability is completely lost in this (lack of) format.
She’d already moved onto Watchdog and the various Eat Well for less type shows
There is no end of that sort of thing she could have done if she’d stayed at the BBC, as well as filling in on Breakfast, she’d end up covering The One Show, and could be in line to front this new morning show that they are apparently planning.
The lack of coverage in the tabloids shows how it’s all pretty much off the radar, normally someone who ‘sensationally quits the beeb’ and moves to a rival, would be watched very closely. I bet Adrian and Christine wish they’d had so little focus on them