I don't lend myself to rota comments, but I'm very pleased to see that Ranvir will be taking the lead role when Suzanna is off, and Kate the expanded newsreader role that Charlotte has.
Nobody has said Ranvir takes the lead role - indeed as I said the way it's worded Charlotte will step up to be the lead female presenter. I suspect Ben might be the lead role - however much they sell the show as a team of four there is very clearly a pecking order.
I don't lend myself to rota comments, but I'm very pleased to see that Ranvir will be taking the lead role when Suzanna is off, and Kate the expanded newsreader role that Charlotte has.
In terms of the programme, I've noticed over the past few days that they're been using the sofa area a lot more for interviews with two of the presenters, I haven't seen the chair area used - maybe in watching later.
The top story has been using a two shot with Ben & Susanna which doesn't work imo, I much preferred one of them taking the top story.
The chemistry is forming slowly, ben's comment to susanna about her era being the 1930's seemed funny with the team & crew, not so much ms Reid.
As for cover, at least for most of the time it'll be just one of them off at a time.
I've also noticed the increase use of the sofa area for interviews in the last few days. Maybe, a response to criticism from viewers who are not connecting the with the four person line up. Others might disagree, but I think the increased use of the sofa area is a positive thing. Clearly a lot of viewers from the core audience do not like the desk set up so the use of 'cosier sofa' does help in my opinion.
In terms of the ratings they seemed to have settled between 610,000 - 640,000 viewers this week with a 15-16% audience share. Even though the ratings have fallen compared to the first week the audience appreciation figure has increased consistently from 59 on the second show to 68 yesterday (same as the last week of Daybreak v2). This means viewers are gradually warming to the new format which interestingly is not reported by the wider media. It must be worrying that in the first seven shows for GMB the audience figures has fallen 23% compared to Daybreak's launch when it fell by 25%.
It will be interesting how Kate, Ranvir and John fulfil their new roles of GMB. It will be helpful for core viewers of Daybreak to have some more familiar faces which might help ratings. I agree with others that slowly the chemistry of the team is forming together and it is good to see more interaction with viewer comments. What has been disappointing has been the focus on inane and non-relevant stories i.e. Katie Price's divorce. Nobody cares, not even the key demographic Housewives with children. Those kind of features were heavily associated with the downfall of GMTV and Daybreak. Why on earth continue this with GMB which is supposed to be different?
I've also noticed the increase use of the sofa area for interviews in the last few days. Maybe, a response to criticism from viewers who are not connecting the with the four person line up. Others might disagree, but I think the increased use of the sofa area is a positive thing. Clearly a lot of viewers from the core audience do not like the desk set up so the use of 'cosier sofa' does help in my opinion.
In terms of the ratings they seemed to have settled between 610,000 - 640,000 viewers this week with a 15-16% audience share. Even though the ratings have fallen compared to the first week the audience appreciation figure has increased consistently from 59 on the second show to 68 yesterday (same as the last week of Daybreak v2). This means viewers are gradually warming to the new format which interestingly is not reported by the wider media. It must be worrying that in the first seven shows for GMB the audience figures has fallen 23% compared to Daybreak's launch when it fell by 25%.
It will be interesting how Kate, Ranvir and John fulfil their new roles of GMB. It will be helpful for core viewers of Daybreak to have some more familiar faces which might help ratings. I agree with others that slowly the chemistry of the team is forming together and it is good to see more interaction with viewer comments. What has been disappointing has been the focus on inane and non-relevant stories i.e. Katie Price's divorce. Nobody cares, not even the key demographic Housewives with children. Those kind of features were heavily associated with the downfall of GMTV and Daybreak. Why on earth continue this with GMB which is supposed to be different?
I personally think none of the old Daybreak team should have been kept at all (yes even Laura Tobin, though ITV should definitely keep her and send her in the direction of Lucy Verasamy), because of their association with that programme.
In my opinion you can't really slate ITV about having not changing things enough and keeping with non-stories like Price's divorce like GMTV/Daybreak would if you're keeping part of the old team. The problem for me is they are stuck between two types of show...a more News based programme or a fluff piece feature. I think the fact that the audiences haven't reduced since the last Daybreak could prove that people want ITV to dump the fluff totally, considering a good proportion of the programme is News based.
I favour Breakfast because of the news content. I agree that they need to ditch the c**p and do the news more. I disagree with having none of the old Daybreak team. John Stapleton is a broadcasting legend, a morning television icon - he is great and could really bring the show forward if used a lot. Ranvir is and always was brilliant on Daybreak, I'm sure she will be brilliant on Good Morning Britain. Kate is Kate, not much more to be said. I think she's alright. Mind you, they could replace Richard Arnold with Kate.
On another subject... Why doesn't GMB come from ITN? I think it should have been an ITV News programme from the start - in the same route of 'Breakfast, from BBC News' and 'Sunrise, from Sky News'.
Probably as ITV don't wish to duplicate another programme, and try and offer something different. Having the news bulletins from ITN would be sufficient, but not the whole show.