BBC Breakfast

I think several people have hit on what does make Breakfast such a good programme - it's the fact that Breakfast does have such a strong team of presenters & reporters that can step up when one of the main four presenters is away.

As I said - I'm not complaining, just observing.

I really do enjoy when Dan presents the programme as he does have a great sense of humour and is a natural fit. Good to see him this morning doing an insert with Andy Murray.

I have to say, I do agree with this. Whilst BBC Breakfast benefits from not necessarily having a "hierarchy" of anchors, Dan Walker's appointment was quite a high profile one for the programme, as Bill Turnbull's replacement. For many - and I know it's subjective - Turnbull was the main face of the programme, so Walker had / has a lot to live up to. He's still relatively new to the programme as well - a little over five months - and presenting the show over Olympics fortnight would have made sense, as you point out, both in terms of drawing on Walker's sports presenting background and consolidating his position on the Breakfast sofa. It would have been the right decision in the long term, I think. To have Walker hosting what will inevitably be a little-watched Olympics select highlights package on BBC Four just seems remiss on the BBC's part.

Having said that, who would say no to a trip to Rio?

I have to agree, he's probably been off more than on since he replaced Bill

They could in theory have partially hosted Breakfast from Rio with Dan, and someone else in the normal Salford studio.

Seems odd to leave the programme to go to Rio to cover the Olympics while the programme itself covers the Olympics!

Later in the Olympics we get some slightly dodgy line ups on breakfast, Steph and Naga at some point, whereas Dan is tucked away on BBC4 and is increasingly feeling like not a proper part of the team.

The line ups are a bit questionable at times, especially when up until 2008 Olympic Breakfast was led by BBC Sport presenters. It's understandable why nowadays it's more Breakfast than Olympic, but it should still have a strong sports presence as it's backbone for the fortnight, although it does appear that Naga fancies herself as a golf pro.

Louise and Charlie though seem to be doing weekend shifts together rather than their usual days. I would say with or without Dan they are probably the faces of Breakfast and really for the Olympics fortnight rather than having them host together 3 days a week they'd have been better off sticking to the more usual rota so one of the two longer serving presenters is on air every day.

The schedule in the Radio Times looks more complicated than that

Charlie joined by Louise today, by Sally tomorrow and then by Naga on Monday and Tuesday

Naga then stays on and is joined by Steph on Wednesday to Friday which is an odd line up for midweek

Charlie then returns next Saturday joined by Sally and then Charlie joined by Louise on Sunday to Tuesday

Louise then with Sally on Wednesday, Sally with Naga on Thursday and Friday and then Naga and Louise on Saturday and Louise and Christian Fraser on the last Sunday.

It's also notable that the seemingly unchangeable finish time on a Sunday remains so despite it being Olympic Breakfast it still goes off air at 9am with 'BBC News' following for an hour afterwards.

So Louise effectively gets the first week off and Charlie the second.

Remember we are also in the middle of the Summer holidays, a time where people have family commitments and/or annual leave.

That said, an alternative option would be to bring in someone specifically for this period. Someone like Chris Hollins (though he may well be in Rio?) for much of the fortnight might make sense, especially if Sally was presenting some of the fortnight. IIRC in 2012 Sian and Bill hosted the first morning, and then most of the rest of the time was split between Sian and Chris Hollins and Bill and Hazel Irvine (?). Something like that might well work better than the seemingly random pairings that involve business presenters and news correspondents?

I don't think Chris Hollins and Salford belong in the same sentence, alas.

I take it the News Channel is staying with Breakfast rather than offering a more news based alternative?

Unfortunately.

Not really. I don't think it would be a good use of Dan's presenting skills to have him co-present Breakfast at 2am-5am local time in Rio, when Breakfast already has sports reporters filing reports from Rio and available in Salford for the sofa. Dan is a good presenter for daytime coverage from the events themselves, so I think the decision they've made makes more sense.

You've already complained about him presenting from the beach, but now you're suggesting he should present in the dark when there's no live sport happening?

Off @BBCBreakfast for a few weeks now to film @BBCWatchdog and @ShopWellForLess. #lovemyjob

— Steph McGovern (@StephLunch) August 12, 2016

So it looks like Ben Thompson or Victoria Fritz will be making regular trips up to Salford while Steph is filming for Watchdog.