BBC Breakfast

Surely no Breakfast presenters were "axed" as such?! The programme was due to move from London to Salford, not all of the then-current presenters were willing to commute and/or relocate, so those individuals (such as Sian) CHOSE to leave instead, surely?

He said older presenters, not Breakfast presenters. Take Moira Stuart, Miriam O'Reilly, Arlene Philips as examples.

Arlene Philips is the one I least understand because when they replaced her, the not only lost an excellent judge with a weath of knowledge and experience in the field, but stupidly replaced her with a tits-out chav popstar, with the IQ of a Potato who added absolutely nothing to the programme and in many ways ruined it.

I hope to see a lot more of Lady MacGregor... and I really do think they should give her a BBC One bulletin here and there as well.

Yes - me too. Very warm and very competent - did the program as if she'd been doing it years, not as if she'd just started doing a new show to her, in a new studio and building.

Suppose it all depends on what the BBC highers up thought - it's definitely no co-incidence that they've used her as a presenter for the first time, on a quiet Sunday. As I said in a previous post I'm hoping she'll get a similar role to Jon Kay, where she turns up occasionally and does a few days in the week, quite like she does on the News Channel.

I really liked Fiona this morning - and would like to see her again.

Still don't really like Roger Johnson though. He can stay on North West Tonight as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't seem to have the right personality for Breakfast.

Another Fiona fan here. I thought she was terrific this morning - even better, in fact, than on the BBC News Channel. I think she'd fit quite comfortably into the Breakfast team and BBC1 bulletins. I think it's nice to have some experienced presenters; why do they all have to be young and I'm sure Fiona will appeal to those viewers of her own age group. She had a very warm, direct and engaging style this morning - absolutely no patronising delivery whatsoever. And as has been said, you'd never have known it was her first time on Breakfast or in that studio from today's performance. It just goes to show that you can shoehorn the likes of Ben Brown into a studio as much as you like, but if you're cut out to be a reporter then that's where you belong. Fiona's substantial studio presenting experience shone through today. There aren't many newsreaders who could show up to a new programme/studio and be totally natural and comfortable like that.

I couldn't have put it better myself! Fiona really should appear more often. In terms of Roger, I felt like he was trying hard to come across as less dull and in fact seemed very shouty and patronising because of it. However the pairing worked quite well and it wasn't one I expected to see on Breakfast in 2012!

It seems odd to think back to the days that Bill & Sian were actually the presenters of Weekend 24 and Jeremy and Sophie ruled the roost during the weekdays.

Yes indeed - they were the B Team, even after Dermot and Natasha came along.

Those comments on Newswatch really were parochial. Two people: one from Cambridge and the other from somewhere in the South East 'complaining' that Breakfast had become regional. Clearly, the irony of their bitter whinging didn't occur to either of them. They both were just upset that the programme was no longer in 'their part of the country' and desperately tried to come up with reasons as to why that was damaging to the natural harmony of the entire universe.

As for the studio: Breakfast has presented from similar small sets before, and nobody complained. The idea of just the sofa and Barco screens was implemented when Breakfast first moved to N6 - surely of comparable size to the studio they now have at Salford Quays? They only ended up back in TC7 after the mothballing of N9, and the sofa always did look rather lost tucked in the corner of a brightly lit studio.

They have already changed some of the close-up shots of the presenters, that was done within a matter of days. The change of view on the plasma screens is no different to when they changed the view on the Barcos in London. Hardly a reason for uproar.

What seems to "Grip the $hit" of some narrow minded people is that the programme comes ". . . from that nasty pagan place up north, where people walk on cobbled streets wearing clogs, and have ferrets and whippets running about their feet".

I recorded the programme this morning and Fiona was as spectacular as expected and Roger not as bad as I thought he would be. Saying that though he was a bit *too* smiley and chirpy with the top headlines at 6am, seeming ecstatic at the thought of missiles being placed on residential flats.

Out of curiosity I had a look at the Breakfast Facebook page and had a little titter at the comments about this morning's line-up, which varied from:



...to...


Those latter commenters obviously don't remember weekends a few years ago where we'd get the likes of Sonia Deol and Robert Hall fumbling their way through which left a lot to be desired.

What hope have the next generation of news presenters got if the audience dismisses a programme based on whether they know the presenters or not, bearing in mind Fiona has years of experience and exposure having been one of ITN's main newscasters, launching GMTV and being on BBC News for a good couple of years now.

If the moaners on Facebook have anything to moan about, it should have been the terrible DTL from the political correspondent in "West London" (read: the clip studio at TVC) just after 6 which cut back to the studio halfway through.

Great post, James. I agree completely. If they don't know who Fiona Armstrong is then they're obviously less than 20 years old or lived in a bubble during the late 80s and early 90s. If I were a Breakfast producer I really wouldn't worry about those last two comments. Viewers who decide to switch channels because they can't sit through 3 hours of an unknown pairing of presenters are not exactly the clientèle which Breakfast ought to be seeking. Leave those with the attention of a gnat to watch Daybreak. Such comments are what make me sick and tired of social media - I bet neither of those two intend to switch off at all. It's purely a vain attempt to seek attention by throwing a public strop. Rather childish if you ask me.

Anyhoo - on the subject of Breakfast, here's one of my all-time favourite eras of the programme: http://www.tv-ark.org.uk/mivana/m.php?p=breakfast_news_open1999&spl=1. I did like the presentation of the 1993-97 virtual era, but the programme felt awfully stiff and stuffy. Things changed a bit in 1997 - a new bright and airy set (which is eerily similar to the BARCO sets of N6 and TC7 ), an optimistic and upbeat theme tune and titles (which I always felt captured that early morning feeling when you first get out of bed) and a new set of friendly and welcoming presenters in Jon Nicholson and Sophie Raworth. I was in high school at that time and watching those titles and hearing the music sends me right back to my cornflakes before school

There's always going to be some idiots who can't bear any sort of change to anything and like to cause a storm over the tiniest changes. Presenters have to start out somewhere and obviously they are oblivious to that fact.

Had a look on Twitter too, which is people saying that Fiona's jacket doesn't fit properly, and 'Who are these people on Breakfast? It's bad enough the show has been dumbed down already..'

As itsrobert said, if people feel the need to switch over because they can't bear to see some different presenters to usual then let them watch the competition-fest that is Daybreak and inevitably come back to Breakfast.

Hopefully Fiona will become a regular face on Breakfast, and people will realise she is actually a very good presenter, and easily as good (if not better) than Susannah and Louise.