Good Morning Britain - the launch

And that's an exact science is it?

What would you actually prefer they do? Bringing back GMTV didn't work (Daybreak MK II), transferring the successful One Show formula didn't work (Daybreak MK I).

I'm no fan of Helen Warner either by the way.

They're quite good, but do need some work. It would be nicer if they did a couple of alternative takes every morning but as most viewers might only see one a morning it doesn't really matter too much. The change of clock from #gmb to the region name is clever, though the logo in the region I saw it on wasn't as smooth.

Their effectiveness does depend on how tightly they're clipped. Presumably the national presenter stands in camera and rattles them off one after the other for the regions to record and clip up.

Central's was edited a bit loose and there was also an odd audio buzz so the difference between live national Ben and recorded local Ben was quite obvious.

Still, a nice idea

It's okay to say "you're wrong".

I'd go along with all of that, although I'm warmer to Susanna.

I did like the pace - which is dictated by all those little cut-to and teases from the B presenters. It sort of clunks to a stop when they go to the cash prize section. God almighty. There's only so many ways a woman in a hairnet with a microphone in her face can ponder over spending a thousand quid. Its not good television the first time and by the fifth I want them all to stop breathing. (And by the way, ITV, £50,000 isn't a decent prize when your phone line runs for 10 days. You must rack up that much in 3 hours.)

It was ok, in the main. I'm not enjoying Breakfast as much as I used to so I'll give Good Morning Britain a day or so.

I would point out that the first half an hour or so of Today (NBC) still has a fair amount of news. The coverage isn't exactly at Newsnight's level, and it tapers off after 07:30 (getting progressively lighter until by 9am and 10am they just have presenters talking about stuff. Really.) but it's a lot more news-driven than Good Morning America.

With any luck this will also have the effect, if it's in the least bit successful, of shaking up Breakfast a little. I've felt for a while that Breakfast had become a little stagnant, which happens when you're popular over an unstable competitor. Not that I'm a breakfast television person anyway. Radio Four serves me just fine. But I remember when I used to enjoy Breakfast, and how dull it feels today (even down to the horrible dark orange colour they light most of the set in.

The Daybreak Dimwits twitter feed has been renamed to the rather pleasing: 'Good Morning Morons'

One thing I don't think I've seen noticed that I thought was clever is that the window in the 'soft area' to the right of the desk window is of Tower Bridge, which of course is the correct direction (although a long way from ITV for that view!)

Huge improvement over Daybreak.

Set looks great, as does the lighting, in comparison to previous ITV Breakfast incarnations, particularly if, like most of the UK, you haven't seen US morning shows which it is so heavily based on. They have thrown everything at this. Be interesting to see if they can sustain the commitment to news.

There clearly needs to be a much clearer definition between Susanna and Charlotte in role. Three people doing roughly the same job feels like one too many. The opening name-checks mid story was so American it felt bizarre - almost as if they had forgotten to do it. Hopefully that will go after the first few shows.

The news updates bouncing between three presenters just feels like overkill. Ben the least credible in a news-reading role if I'm honest - his delivery was a bit 'autocutie' at times (words came out in the right order, but inflection suggested he wasn't clear what he was saying). He's a warm and witty presence though - and sets the right tone for that time of the morning. (And there are many experienced journalists who are a lot wose)

Possibly a few too many gimmicks - definitely too many wipe/sting transitions, and possibly a bit of an on-screen graphics overload (felt very much like I was watching Sky). The Andi Peters OBs stick out horrifically. Definitely a link to the past.

I like the ambition of the specific links to the regional bulletins, but because they are cold reads they did stick out a bit.

ITV London's clock had a leading 0 (unlike the main show) which didn't quite fit into the lozenge it was supposed to. The link from Ben was very loose at the top. It is something that ITV can do more easily than the BBC - as their format has far more stings for sponsorship and breaks giving you a chance to run a clean, self-contained recorded link without having to pick up off the same presenter reading live.

I only caught about a minute this morning, though from what I did see it looked fairly good. I liked the London skyline, something which was nice about the original Daybreak set (when it wasn't dark outdoors).

I liked it apart from the 1D overload though it was expected being their first show and they needed to draw the youngsters in somehow.

I have to question the skyline, was it live? My part of East London was very dull and cloudy this morning yet the south bank seemed bright and clear.

There's always a tendency for TV Forum to be a bit "new breakfast show!!!!!!" for the first few days and ignore the negatives. With that in mind, here's the negatives first:

-Competitions: A necessary evil, however they still take up too much time and should be simplified as much as possible.

-The regional handovers are too obvious and don't work. This morning one of the Granada opts had four seconds of Ben waiting to read the script and the end of the bulletin was cut off. Granada's graphics were actually identical to the main programme apart from the size of the time in the clock, presumably as they have one of the newest regional newsrooms.

-Some parts of the show were too rushed. Paul O'Grady had to sit in a green room for two hours by himself with a camera on him only to have a five minute conversation shoved at the end of the show.

However overall the main show was actually quite good. If they fix the pacing and get the chemistry right, they could finally provide decent competition for Breakfast, because god knows they need it.

I'll post more later when I have the chance to watch more of the show on record.

What do the presenters think of how the first show went? Video on the website: http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain#