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Good Morning Britain - the launch

(April 2014)

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BA
bazinga
I have always defended GMB but despite preferring ITV Breakfast to BBC's, Good Morning Britain has slipped.

The show started with a good premise - news. Since April it has become a different show with less emphasis on real, breaking, stories and more focus on "look at X marrying Y" and I feel it is a massive shame - it is almost as if a rebrand has occurred and but no one was informed.

I still believe that the show has promise, I can't deny it that. It just needs to go back to April and have all the 4 presenters, yes ITV let's not forget Sean, at the desk delivering that mornings headlines in the way they had planned. If ITV like to please those who like the entertainment stuff I'd suggest handing over after 8 - 8:35 to more light-hearted stuff, at this point we could even have delegation to the sofa area with 2 presenters talking with guests about the showbiz stuff they enjoy. At the TOTH the main headlines would be read out in full and clips from "earlier on GMB" could be shown here but after that they would discuss the entertainment stuff.

I like the feel of GMB I really do, I know people don't like Susanna but I actually do and think she could be great, so could they all, if they did the show better.

What I like about ITV Breakfast is that it is more light-hearted in the sense I feel more comfortable waking up to the presenters and look of the show than I do BBC Breakfast. What I don't want from GMB is light-hearted in the fashion of no proper news and early morning junk, if they wanted that then they should have left Daybreak alone.

I think maybe the tone has intentionally been less serious with the lead-up to Christmas and all in all that doesn't bother me because Christmas is a time when, I believe, things should be calmer and more peaceful if that's what GMB is trying to capture at this point in time, great. However, in the January I'm hoping to have "April GMB".

I do agree with many points raised. It's Daybreak with a desk...
But like Brekkie said no one is surprised that they've reverted back to the showbiz format, and clearly they have not learned of their past mistakes of changing things too quickly. Which is a shame because i felt the format they launched with could have worked if given more time.
Now the show consists of mainly showbiz and celebrity rubbish, and that's not really my cup of tea..
From a presentation point of view, it's a laugh really as insiders on here said the graphics were designed to have meaning.. After 7 the news ticker has gone, and i'm not sure what that achieves at all. All studio shots to and from the ads have stopped which i personally found nice. And the obsession ITV have with Susanna, sadly i cannot take to her at all. The fake smiles and nodding Charlotte, Kate and Ranvir all have a warmer and more welcoming delivery.
They were making a big deal out of 4 presenters a desk and more newsier format.
I am aware the show isn't all about presentation..
IMO the way the show is going now it's destined to fail, no doubt they will get a nice red sofa in soon. And in 18 months or so there will be another relaunch.
NG
noggin Founding member
I don't know why they bother with all these expensive relaunches, when they are just repackaging Daybreak.

To be honest, a proper change behind-the-scenes is needed, and a proper re-think of the breakfast slot. I really think it's time ITN get a shot at doing it.


Be interesting to know how much more (or less) an ITN produced service would cost. The competitions partially fund the show currently AIUI...
AN
all new Phil
I have always defended GMB but despite preferring ITV Breakfast to BBC's, Good Morning Britain has slipped.

The show started with a good premise - news. Since April it has become a different show with less emphasis on real, breaking, stories and more focus on "look at X marrying Y" and I feel it is a massive shame - it is almost as if a rebrand has occurred and but no one was informed.

I still believe that the show has promise, I can't deny it that. It just needs to go back to April and have all the 4 presenters, yes ITV let's not forget Sean, at the desk delivering that mornings headlines in the way they had planned. If ITV like to please those who like the entertainment stuff I'd suggest handing over after 8 - 8:35 to more light-hearted stuff, at this point we could even have delegation to the sofa area with 2 presenters talking with guests about the showbiz stuff they enjoy. At the TOTH the main headlines would be read out in full and clips from "earlier on GMB" could be shown here but after that they would discuss the entertainment stuff.

I like the feel of GMB I really do, I know people don't like Susanna but I actually do and think she could be great, so could they all, if they did the show better.

What I like about ITV Breakfast is that it is more light-hearted in the sense I feel more comfortable waking up to the presenters and look of the show than I do BBC Breakfast. What I don't want from GMB is light-hearted in the fashion of no proper news and early morning junk, if they wanted that then they should have left Daybreak alone.

I think maybe the tone has intentionally been less serious with the lead-up to Christmas and all in all that doesn't bother me because Christmas is a time when, I believe, things should be calmer and more peaceful if that's what GMB is trying to capture at this point in time, great. However, in the January I'm hoping to have "April GMB".

I do agree with many points raised. It's Daybreak with a desk...
But like Brekkie said no one is surprised that they've reverted back to the showbiz format, and clearly they have not learned of their past mistakes of changing things too quickly. Which is a shame because i felt the format they launched with could have worked if given more time.
Now the show consists of mainly showbiz and celebrity rubbish, and that's not really my cup of tea..
From a presentation point of view, it's a laugh really as insiders on here said the graphics were designed to have meaning.. After 7 the news ticker has gone, and i'm not sure what that achieves at all. All studio shots to and from the ads have stopped which i personally found nice. And the obsession ITV have with Susanna, sadly i cannot take to her at all. The fake smiles and nodding Charlotte, Kate and Ranvir all have a warmer and more welcoming delivery.
They were making a big deal out of 4 presenters a desk and more newsier format.
I am aware the show isn't all about presentation..
IMO the way the show is going now it's destined to fail, no doubt they will get a nice red sofa in soon. And in 18 months or so there will be another relaunch.

I'm not sure I understand the comment about ITV having an obsession with Susanna - it's not like she's on anything else really.

You make some good points otherwise though. The thing I don't get - every time they do the same thing. More fluff, more showbiz. The result - less ratings each time. It's a downward spiral.

The show at launch was, I thought, great. I watched a bit of it most days whilst I was getting ready for work. I still do, but I'm more inclined to flick channels, play on my phone etc.
AL
alexhduk
I think people on here forget that BBC Breakfast is not a hard hitting all news programme either , they have fluffy items and entertainment interviews and news.
ST
Stedixon
I think people on here forget that BBC Breakfast is not a hard hitting all news programme either , they have fluffy items and entertainment interviews and news.



Yes but the main focus of it is news. It only tends to go fluffy for the last half an hour or so. You could say it's the Beebs version of Lorraine towards the end.

GMB have forgotten what "proper" news is and mistakenly thought celeb drivel is news.
BA
bilky asko
Part of what's put me off is the presenters from the bad days of GMTV and Daybreak being clung onto. If and when they start again, I reckon they could do with severing all ties with previous presenters. If they want to be respected as a news service, then they could do worse than going with ITN and using ITN presenters. If they want to be a lighter alternative, then ditching Richard Arnold, Ben Shephard and pals for presenters that aren't going for/stuck with a certain presenting style is something that I think would help.
London Lite and newmocker gave kudos
HB
HarryB
The program showed the viewers messages in the ticked this morning, but still had the ITV News logo inbetween like normal which I think is very strange as has no connection at all obviously
PA
PATV Scunthorpe
I do agree with BBC News Fix, It was a bit strange with ITV News, something like "MERRY CHRISTMAS" would have been good.

Just as long as there was something to separate the messages.

But, it did take me back a few years, to when on Christmas Day or Valentines Day, you could send in messages to Disney Channel and then they would show it. They probably still do it.

(I am sorry for going a bit off topic, )
WH
Whataday Founding member
The show started with a good premise - news. Since April it has become a different show with less emphasis on real, breaking, stories and more focus on "look at X marrying Y" and I feel it is a massive shame - it is almost as if a rebrand has occurred and but no one was informed.


Has that much really changed? Because on the first ever programme, one of the main headlines was that George Clooney was getting married etc

The problem with placing emphasis on breaking news, is not a lot of any relevance happens overnight. In fact most of the 'New Overnight' headlines featured in the early weeks (which is when I gave up watching) was news that was covered at 10pm and even 6pm the previous night.

A good point made by someone above about BBC Breakfast's content. Content wise, Breakfast is very similar to GMTV in its heyday (minus the competitions). The difference is, it's presented with a tone that's slightly more authoritative and more 'BBC'. It's a very dated opinion to think that BBC Breakfast is the newsier alternative.
WH
Whataday Founding member
Looking through YouTube clips GMTV had a Christmas Day programme in 1996 with Lorraine, Rev. Steve Chalk and guests, this changed in 1997 with children's programmes throughout - however in '97 Christmas Day was a Saturday, but they seemed to stick with children's programmes on the day from that point.


97/98 was around the time their franchise was amended so maybe the requirements for Christmas Day were adjusted. Or maybe the children's shows did the business ratings wise.
NG
noggin Founding member
I think people on here forget that BBC Breakfast is not a hard hitting all news programme either , they have fluffy items and entertainment interviews and news.


The difference is that Breakfast can credibly do serious news very well when a big story breaks. They may do lighter stuff (and they do it well), but they can do serious stuff easily too. They have a very strong presenting line-up who are both warm AND credible journalist/presenters.

GMB appear to struggle in these situations, and Ben doesn't really have any credibility as a news presenter, though he's a perfectly competent 'daytime'-style presenter.
bilky asko and Stedixon gave kudos
LJ
Live at five with Jeremy
I'm a very infrequent viewer of GMB but I would have thought Charlotte Hawkins would be very good at doing the serious news topics. She was certainly excellent at covering serious stories for Sky News Sunrise and at other times she presented too.

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