I'm not sure its been raised before in this thread, but there is a very good reason why the viewing figures have been so dire and its got nothing to do with the BBC. Its entirely down to the product itself and not competitors, and unless ITV seriously up their game and completely overhaul the programme content, something they failed to do when switching from GMTV to Daybreak, then all of their expensive rebranding exercises will have been for nought. If the BBC had wasted so much money on rebranding its breakfast show there would be calls for the DG's scalp.
...at the end of the day if you put a fancy hat on a turd... its still a turd.
Pretty much sums it up. BBC Breakfast is pretty dull but is well structured and informative whereas Daybreak isn't. I've always watched ITV in the mornings until Daybreak started to morph into a bad GMTV copy (I really liked the original Daybreak), and if ITV can produce something better then viewers
will
switch across in time.
I'm looking forward to the revamp and seeing how it pans out, I also really like Lorraine (I still watch her show if I get the chance to, just not Daybreak itself) so will no doubt watch the new show. But whilst it is a safe option (and is why they have hired her), I do think they'll be setting ITV's breakfast show back by a good 20 years. By setting it back they aren't allowing themselves to move forward which is where GMTV went badly wrong and needed changing. By not allowing it to evolve and by panicking and reverting with the slighest change, the show simply can't move forward, it gets stuck in its ways, viewers get tired and it doesn't reflect the current TV/media landscape. I really do wish they took a risk with Matt & Ranvir hosting the main show and kept it quite news focused. Being unknown would have definitely worked in their favour (viewers don't like big names in the morning unless you've been there for years), and anything that airs after Daybreak 1.0 is bound to go down better. On the off chance that it didn't work, then
that
would have been the time to draft in Lorraine & co to front a showbiz lead programme.
Viewers are very fickle and television moves on very quickly. It was a different TV landscape but you could draw some parallels to when Richard & Judy left This Morning. It completely fell apart afterwards with the new presenters, looked like it was going to be axed, the low key stand ins were eventually brought in as full time replacements and 10 years on the show is arguably stronger than ever.
. I also said it was a different TV landscape. It is simply illogical to suggest that because it is now getting around 21% instead of 40% it isn't as strong as it was. TV viewing has changed, its like saying Corrie is failing because it isn't getting the 15m it was getting 15 years ago. The BBC isn't much further ahead at the same time, and I was making the 'arguably stronger than ever' claim on the basis of it having very strong ratings, a loyal following and winning numerous awards in the last couple of years. Some may not be that prestigous but awards nontheless that they weren't getting before. But that's all irrelevant to this thread, I was merely demonstrating that a show can be messed up but fixed quickly.