Good Morning Britain

I suppose it was the same with The Big Breakfast. No matter what they did or how they changed it, the programme always reverted back to the original format. Even it's replacement ended up as two presenters sitting on chairs in front of a couple of patio doors


Must be more than that, I know 2 people who work there who have been there since GMTV!


.... and 300 people, really!?

The TV-AM format (what it became, not the one it launched with) seems to have set the template that has been used ever since. GMTV tried to go off in a different direction from TV-AM, lost viewers like they were going out of fashion and were forced to come back to their predecessor's format - in fact I believe it was pretty much TV-AM in everything but name after, what six months if that into 1993? IIRC the BBC also later used the TV-AM template as well.

The Greg dyke format, he was brought back into gmtv to over hall the company, strange how history repeated itself.

Surely it's BBC Breakfast Time's format that TV-am ripped off rather than the other way around.

How much of TV-am's format was known before they made it on air? I think it's well known that the BBC rushed Breakfast Time on air as a spoiler for TV-am, so their plans may well have been informed by what the other side had promised in the franchise application etc.

Correct. The media press at the time thought Breakfast Time was going to be a more lighter version of Newsnight. Ignoring that most of the production team had been assembled from Nationwide, so it wasn't a surprise when it turned up, it had the comfortable feel of NW's air about it (helped the main anchor had been a Nationwide stalwart as well).

In terms on on screen look, it was TV-am who borrowed the living room sofa look from ABC's Good Morning America. That idea you suspect had Sir David Frosts fingerprints all over it.

David Frost was I'm sure a great man and made some extremely influential television journalism, but couldn't run a TV channel for toffee.

Both of the main UK formats were, and are, pale copies of programmes from the States and ripped off by virtually every developed country in the world before coming to the UK.

For anyone interested in ratings, here's the breakdown for Friday's show:

06:00 - 0.37m (21.4%)
06:30 - 0.53m (21.7%)
07:00 - 0.70m (19.1%)
07:30 - 0.83m (17.5%)
08:00 - 0.91m (16.7%)

That gives it an average of 668,000, which is pretty good for a Friday show, typically the worst rating of the week for GMB.

Just shows that things can grow if they are given time, and not just axed in a panic. Seems like GMB will be here to stay for a while yet.

That's an interesting breakdown, good to see the first hour, often the best has a good share.

It's safe to say there's been little no tinkling around with GMB in comparison to Daybreak.

As stated as long as it gets a good share and the advertisers will keep coming GMB is here to stay.

Must say though I far prefer Piers/Susanna than Ben/Kate, not that the latter aren't good, it feels more GMTV towards the end of the week.

Have you got the Lorraine breakdown and also equivalent for Breakfast?

All Christmas decorations have been removed from view as a result (one can only imagine) of the terrible news stories being covered this morning at the desk area.