Good Morning Britain

The increase was minor, and basically came from the fact that some people will watch the car crash that is Piers "over the cliffface of insanity" Morgan. As to the increased press coverage, I don't think that's something ITV should be going after. The newspaper industry is losing readers, losing advertisers, and basically is dying slowly on its feet. Far better in my view to build a show that people could genuinely turn to in the morning, than go for a cheap ratings pop, that has very limited upside.

So what you’re advocating is GMB replicating Breakfast? What would be the point in that?

As much as a morning of Piers Morgan gives me the shivers, he has a strong personality which has helped GMB be more distinctive.

Go back to the summer when it returned to the diet of bland formatted typical ITV breakfast nonsense. Even Piers saw it himself when he watched the programme during his break at how dire it was.

Unlike This Morning which can tick away nicely when Philip and Holly go away for weeks on end with stand-in presenters, there is a lot riding on Piers and Susanna which doesn't quite work when Piers especially is away.

Not necessarily. The audience for BBC Breakfast is quite different to the one for GMB. I just don't think going all Fox News Lite at breakfast is a good long term idea. Other than not having Piers on, the only other thing I think GMB shouldn't do is competitions.

You can have hosts with opinions, and lighter features, just don't have the situation you have with Piers at the moment, where he takes over the whole damn show and throws the format out at a whim. Lets have the news in the right places, and not have Mr former tabloid editor prattling on for 15 minutes before you even get to the news.

Maybe, just maybe viewers are tuning in for Morgan's rants and Reid's eyerolling when he says anything right wing than for the news, weather, the banal regional inserts or the 'celeb' interviews.

GMB is a completely different show when he's not there and is duller for it.

Why does he have to do it before the news though? It would make storytelling sense for him to wait until after the bulletin before going into an epic rant on whatever story has him riled up. Heck, you could have the first half hour just be the news and one of his rants.

To my ears, a Piers Morgan rant is reason enough for me to swtich off, so with them happening before the news, I don't even get the update on the top stories, as I don't want to stick around through his inane ranting just to get the update. Some do like it, but honestly, it's car crash TV, and not in a good way. It's the kind of car crash that makes you look away, not the one that you can't take your eyes off.

I'd watch Breakfast or listen to the radio, where you have R4's Today, LBC, LBC London News, 5 Live etc if you want a news digest. GMB isn't the programme for it while Morgan is the lead presenter. The PSB elements play second to the host.

Considering the low audiences for both Breakfast and GMB, they complement each other rather than directly competing which has been ITV Breakfast's downfall post GMTV.

And how many people tune in at bang on 6am specifically for the news? Surely that’s the point where there are the least viewers - if anything it’s the best time.

As it happens, I’ve taken to watching the first 20 minutes of the show on catch up Monday to Wednesday when I get home from work. I’d be interested to know how many others do similar - I can’t think of any other reason for watching the show back.

I'll dip in on the ITV Hub as well, I don't have the time to watch it in the morning like most people in the country. I'll also skip to when they do the topical review with the guests as well.

I think we're forgetting that Morgan's chemistry with Susanna has brought in hundreds of thousands of viewers

Not only that, it's given GMB a brand awareness on a par with This Morning.

Still barely getting half what Breakfast does. For all the talk of the ratings 'boost' Piers has given has given GMB you'd expect a bit more of an increase given the hype - and it says it all about GMB's appeal that when it had an England World Cup match as lead in it still lost to an ITV2 show.
The way this thread talks GMB you'd be forgiven for thinking it had increased by a few million.

There aremuch better examples of how somebody new being introduced to ITV has increased interest and ratings in a show - Kate Oates at Corrie was a great example of that.