Daybreak - the launch onwards

I think some outlets failed to factor in the the ITV1HD channel audience.

Peak audience 7:35 am? The member who posted on here saying that GMTV's 7:35 time to do travel and weather updates was the perfect time was right!

It's starting to grow on me. Being a Big Breakfast viewer, I can't wait to see how Daybreak's end song on a friday turns out.

So when you look at it like that - 23% up ( although obvioulsy including people being curious for 1st day) It doesn't look as bad as has been made out!

OK - so let's look at the feel of programmes and how they stack up.

BBC 1 - Breakfast. Light and fluffy professionals from a virtual newsroom.
BBC 2 - Kids' TV. Background noise for schoolkids eating their cereal.
ITV 1 - Daybreak. Faux-trendy ugly-bloke-next-door and fit bird combination from a loft apartment.
C4 - Frasier (Big Brother soon ending). Intelligent and funny, with a clock.
5 - Milkshake. Wonderful kids' programming for that gap in the market.

SKY - Sunrise with Eamonn. News with cuddly big bloke and some fit bird called Charlotte. He's funny sometimes.
CNN/AJ/RT - News. Cold and factual.

Other channels - repeats of Corrie, Emmerdale, talent shows, Top Gear etc.

So... what are we missing?

WARMTH.

GMTV, like it or not, occupied a gap in the market for warm television. Arguably the warmest thing on the box in the AM now is Frasier - intelligent yet slapstick farcical comedy. Maybe Milkshake (a Brooker favourite, I remember). Daybreak may well be buggered in the winter - that studio will look very cold and uninviting. If it's dark outside at 7am I don't particularly want some trendy c*nt who can't read without binoculars to invite me into his corporate meeting room. I'd prefer a big warm sun with a comfy settee and someone gently breaking news to me, like being told I've got cancer.

People are at their most vulnerable in the morning, and this is reflected in what presenters often say when they leave shows - "thank you for welcoming me into your homes". To the viewer, it's like letting someone see you when you're naked, or when you're in bed, or when you're shaving, or eating - it's VERY personal television. And you can not argue that GMTV was impersonal - it was warm and friendly, albeit with vapid content and sometimes brainless presenters. This is why I think Daybreak will struggle. It seems like a lot of execs are creaming themselves over a new shiny studio with lots of toys and big screens to play with, but they've listened to focus groups and their own minds, neither of which tell the truth of what the audience want. If GMTV had a little more money spent on it, on advertising, on getting some decent talent back, on really sprucing up content and producing a decent service, then ITV could have easily trounced Breakfast.

However smiley Sian and Bill's predictability is a ratings winner. So - I give that purple sofa 2 months. If it's still there in December, then people are stranger than I thought and TV is dead.

Oh - and f*ck "redefining breakfast television". All they've done is made it into The Apprentice does tv-am.

Also - how can ratings for breakfast television work, especially GMTV? Their core audience was fairly unlikely to have the boxes on their tellies, more a makeshift aerial and a clapped out CRT overscan machine. That's why their figures might seem a bit skew-wiff compared to a programme more upmarket demographic maybe?

Why do so many people seem to hate Adrian ?? I never liked him at first on the one show, but grew to like him. And I don't see the need to describe him as a "trendy c**t"? is there any need?

Well I believe that BARB ( The people who do the ratings - not being patronising, just incase you don't know) try to get a panel that are as represntative of Britain as possible. I can see why you'd think that.

He's divisive, that's for sure. I think people just don't get the 'grumpy' thing - even if it is real - as Jack Dee's done it for ten years and it's not funny any more (if indeed you thought it was when he started)

His appearance on Daybreak comes across as very, "do I have to? Ugh, alright then. Here's the news" - so I think the description is apt, particularly if we are to believe the salary. YES, you do have to do the news. For that salary, you should have salami permanently attached to your nipples and to do the heads whilst wearing an Indian outfit shouting "Raas Malaai!"

Don't really get the hate for Adrian myself. Bill Turnball mumbles his way through Breakfast just as much.

For me, the set is nice. I think that backdrop is the best thing about the studio. Even when it is the winter and it will be dark, if you put BBC One on your just getting another 'cold' background.

It's nice to get people's names right yes but there is no need to jump on posters who makes such a small mistake. Especially when you consider half this forum struggles to spell basic words correctly.

[Mod note: A number of previous posts have since been removed.]

I'm pretty sure that the BARB devices are on every TV in the house not just one. The type of TV is irrelevant.

You might have a bit of a point though as those in the survey houses might be less inclined to press their 'I'm viewing' buttons when they're getting ready for work and of course many people dip in and out of programmes - they'll see a bit when making a cuppa but not when cleaning their teeth for example