In the UK, people are creatures of routine at Breakfast time.
Whether their preferred TV / Radio programme / channel is
Radio Two, Radio Four, BBC Breakfast or SKY, it doesn't matter.
It will take a long time for any new programme on any network to establish itself.
Unfortunately, now, schedulers, Programme controllers, TV Network shareholders, TV Forum posters are impatient.
Personally, I have only seen a few clips of the new ITV show, but from what I have heard, they have made some rather fundamental and crucial errors.
The most basic are:-
Keep it simple. (i.e. don't spend a fortune illuminating part of the set, when the viewer couldn't care less about it). Spend the money on content.
Don't treat your viewers as though they are stupid and / or 'a number'. Aim high, and fail, rather than aim for the LCD and succeed.
Go for the journalism. Get it right.
(I don't watch this programme, but I have been involved in Breakfast programmes in general).
I think this rather hits the nail on the head. I would say that people at breakfast time largely want familiarity and a snapshot of whatever news & features may be on offer, but in the same format and at the same times. Breakfast time is a busy period in family homes, it's when office workers are getting ready to leave, and for mums it's about getting the kids fed and out the door to school. So, whatever people choose as their preferred breakfast TV programme, it needs to be familiar and viewers need to learn when to expect their weather, news headlines, etc.
Daybreak's problem is that so much has been tinkered with and changed around that viewers have no chance to build familiarity or get a feel for what the show wants to be. And that seems to be the crux of the matter - not even Daybreak knows what it wants to be. I've tuned in a couple of times and based on those experiences I won't be back. The set was different every time I tuned in. Weather and features were in different places in the running order. The newspaper review they were doing kept getting interrupted by seemingly unrelated spots. The banter in the studio felt really forced and unnatural. On Friday they had the '4 poofs and a piano' from Jonathan Ross summing up the week in a song, and for some inexplicable reason they had subtitled them, even though what they were singing was perfectly audible. Taken as a whole, the programme was awful.
One time I was watching, Adrian was interviewing some volcanologists, fascinating people. What a great interview that could have been - all the things you could ask! But, the majority of the questions he (or the production team) came up with were stupid - for example one was "Have you guys ever considered taking a bag of marshmallows down with you to toast?". Even the volcanologist seemed a bit taken aback and clearly thought it was a bit comical. Now I'm not expecting HardTalk at breakfast time but come on, that's not "agenda-setting journalism" or whatever that press release trumpeted. ITV shouldn't be making statements like that if they're not going to be able to back them up.
I should just state that I'm not a particular TV snob, I'm not loyal to any particular channel, I watch the programme I want to regardless of where it's being shown. As it happens, I am looking for something fairly light in the morning - I find BBC Breakfast a bit too much sometimes. I'm probably the sort of viewer that Daybreak are wanting to win over and if they gave me something light, regular, with enough news so I felt fully up to date, and didn't treat me like an idiot, I'd watch it.
I don't have the answers and I'm not an expert but there just seem to be some very basic elements that are wrong. I think all I'm doing is echoing what Azimuth posted above. Keep it simple, decide what you want to be and stick with it. Keep the running order fairly similar day-to-day, give us a chance to get to know the show and the on-screen team & what's going to be happening and when. Don't keep messing around with the set and format because that will just make matters worse.
If they're going to do a lobotomy, I'd suggest they get it over with and then have the confidence to leave well alone for 3-4 months so the new team and format can settle down and build its audience.
