Daybreak - the launch onwards

Can I help bring things back on topic. I have come across this which may help people with 'Terrace' questions or possibly not.
http://youtu.be/2nImBYU-Wm0

When I watch clips like this I see a happy show that doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, allowing the presenters to do such links as on the clip, and to make an informative, but alternative programme. I wonder what would have happened if they hadn't have made any tweaks, if things like 5 a day had continued, if they'd relied less on returning to a GMTV format even adopting things like 1 minute tv. If they'd have left the programme as it was for the first few editions, would people have got used to that format, more so than enjoy it today.

It is difficult to judge whether more people would have enjoyed the show if they hadn't changed the format after the launch. I think it is highly possible that over the longer term people might have got used to the show but the significant improvement's in ratings that were made in November and December last year probably wouldn't have happened so quickly.

Also just looking over the viewing figures yesterday for Bank Holiday Monday Daybreak only attracted 400,000 viewers. These dire figures are a repeat of the nightmare ratings at the New Year, however Lorraine attracted 1 million viewers. It's fair to say holidays particuarly the Bank Holidays are not good for the programme but we have to put it into context BBC Breakfast was down half a million on it's average as well.

On a more positive note, AI (Audience Appreciation) figures for the show were slightly up between 66 and 68, an improvement from the low 60s.

Also, if you say that Lorraine attracted 1m viewers, that needs to be taken into account when comparing Daybreak to Breakfast. It would be interesting to see Breakfast's average until 8:30 and then their average post-8:30 (but not sure if how possible it is).

They did stick with the original format for the first few weeks, but when Kate & Dan did their first bit of cover presenting a few weeks in there was a shift back to a more GMTV format and the viewing figures went up. They seem to have stuck with that format, but taking it too far in the opposite direction to what we're left with now.



Even if you put Daybreak and Lorraine together, the average would only be about 0.6m anyway. To look at the ratings in relative terms, Daybreak lost 50% of its usual audience whilst BBC Breakfast lost around 30%. Also, Lorraine got its regular figures despite being a pre recorded "beauty special" presented by Carol Vorderman which makes the Daybreak figure even more embarrassing.

If ITV are determined to make a success of Daybreak, they could easily manipulate the figures by airing CITV from 6-7am and Daybreak from 7-8.30am. They should really test this out on bank holidays, if I remember rightly when they did that over Christmas, CITV managed to get 200,000 viewers compared to Daybreak's usual 300,000 in that slot.

So, Daybreak got 400,000 yesterday, Breakfast got 1.1 Million, Lorraine got 1 Million at 8:30. That just shows how people can't be bothered to watch Daybreak, and how the ratings shoot up for Lorraine. It'll be interesting to see what the ratings are like now that we're out of the Easter holidays.

We're not out of the Easter Holidays, not yet. We've got at least a week to go yet.

A lot of schools here in the North West are in this week - new timetable which means the 'spring break' is always at the beginning of April regardless of where Easter is. Not sure if that's the same nationwide but it's meant due to the bank holidays the schools are in for only 6 days in April.

The ratings on a Bank Holiday are completely irrelevant and not worth discussing. They don't show any trends, except for the fact that people obviously don't tune in at 6am when they are on holiday.

I expect GMTV used to rate very low on Bank Holidays as well.

Well most Schools here in Wirral in the North West our still off this week

Quick question, and apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere on this thread as not read it all, but did Daybreak have the regional opt outs on the Bank Holidays? I don't thinK GMTV used to.

GMTV used to have a proportionate drop the same as BBC Breakfast and even in previous school holidays, Daybreak hasn't gone much below 600,000. The only time it has been lower was over Christmas.