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Changes coming to Wake Up

Exclusive: Wake Up is planning changes to its News and Weather content.

2014-03-23_2327EXCLUSIVE: Wake Up News presenter Nuala Hafner will be leaving her Melbourne news desk to join Natarsha Belling and James Mathison in Manly, TV Tonight can reveal.

The change in coming weeks is part of producer Steve Wood’s plans for TEN’s breakfast show.

The shift will end the remote bulletins at Federation Square and help boost her rapport with the show’s Sydney presenters. The widely-held view is that having Hafner on set outweighs any benefit from being seen to have a Melbourne presence.

It will be the second key change to Wake Up news after earlier abandoning local news reports, established by former producer Adam Boland.

Wood also plans to introduce a regular weather presenter to the team. That’s despite TEN recently losing skilled meteorologist Magdalena Roze, who was part of the Paul Henry-led Breakfast team.

Wake Up will however, broadcast from Melbourne during the Logies week, likely to be from Federation Square.

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No date has been earmarked for the changes, with Wood keen to introduce them at the same time. In the ratings race, Wake Up is still struggling against three other shows, last week hovering between 35,000-50,000 people.

TV Tonight recently visited Wake Up and got an insight into how the show transforms Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club. Everything in the makeshift studio is portable, from desk, sets and lights, with the exception of the lighting grid.

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Once Friday morning’s show has been completed, everything is packed away for the weekend, allowing the space to become communal use once more, until Sunday night when it is all transformed once more. The entire model is compact and economic in order to make the most of its eye-catching backdrop.

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35 Responses

  1. I try to avoid A Current Affair, but caught the segment on the Brekkie TV Wars and the alleged plan by Adam Borland to drop Kochie on Sunrise. Those in this forum would know AB left Sunrise over 3 years ago – and for Ch 9 to try and pass it off as current news is shocking. Plus they had a swipe at Ch 10, saying how disastrous Wake Up was. Clearly they’re trying to rubbish the competition. Some days I really wish karma was such a thing in TV land.

  2. I sense I’m in a minority, but I don’t understand the obsession with Matt Doran. Sure, seems funny and has that seemingly Larry Emdur look about him and has the ‘newsy’ creeds that possibly James doesn’t have but surely potential recruits can come from elsewhere? It’d be a long day, but would straight swapping James for Joe be an option? What about Ed Phillips! If News increases it’s share in Ten there’d be a swag of Weather Channel ppl to pick from.

  3. James mathison is out of his depth and I get a sense he doesn’t have a good handle on the subjects he is discussing. He needs to be replaced.

  4. For a network that has no money to run a remote studio that needs to be packed up each week is absurd. It must be costing a fortune to run this operation. For what benefit? How did Boland ever get this signed off? He must be one hell of a salesman. The program that was launched was fundamentally flawed in so many ways… most of all by chemistry… It’s a train wreck.

  5. Yeah wake up needs 3 or 4 people on the desk at all times to liven it up and create more discussion, at the moment talk about boring! I’m sorry but James needs to go as he is adding nothing to the show. I don’t want to see the same news stories 20 times during the show like Sunrise and Today do! Also the set looks like shit, again boring.

  6. I don’t believe Matt Doran is the answer, the show needs some maturity injected into it. I don’t think James manages the balance of silliness/maturity well in comparison to someone like Karl Stevanovic. Look forward to seeing these changes!

  7. Talk about flogging a dead horse. What a complete waste of everyone’s time.
    As for Magdalena, it could be she may be an astrologist as well and realises that future prospects for her and the 10 Network are non existant. A wise move on her part.

  8. Totally agree with the majority of comments said here already. Like I said in previous posts move Matt into the co-hosts chair, asap would be good.

    It would be Great to see Magdalena as weather presenter, but if she has left Ten. Well too late. They need someone with some definitive background knowledge in meteorology.

    Broadcasting from Melbourne during the Logies week, makes sense.

  9. The next problem on the horizon is daylight. It was pitch black at 6:30 this morning and the set looked awful, soon the majority of the show will be like that.

    These changes are improvements, but they are small tweaks compared to the foundational change the show needs. These are the kind of changes that should have been made in rehearsals.

  10. They should at least get Matho to take a two week ‘holiday’ and trial Doran to see if there is any change in dynamics and more importantly ratings!

  11. They should have done this from the start. I dont think they should be making much of a fuss about the Logies though – I dont think 10 will be having much to celebrate that night!

    Agree they should get Magdalena back – much better than those weather ‘presenters’ on Sunrise and Today.

  12. Great to see behind the scenes.

    They are steps in the right direction. I trust there is a 6 month contact about to expire for news out of Melbourne with the Vic Government or Melbourne City Council. It has not worked. Too hard for any chemistry between the hosts to develop. Sunrise team do have a great chemistry and it shows.

    Weather presenter – get Mags back…whatever you do. She has credibility and gives people a reason to watch. And who cares if she was with the failed Breakfast….she was not the reason the show failed!
    So I look forward to seeing Mags on the beach at Mainly!!!

  13. I agree that Matt Doran is the best choice for host. Having Nuala & James in the same studio will be even worse, they act like a couple of high school students.
    I know it is a cliche but they need to have some sort of roving reporter so that they can get out & promote the show in other communities.

  14. How about bring Matt Doran into the Wake Up Team and dump Matho? Doran is a fantastic presenter on Ten eyewitness News. And get rid of Nuala Hafner and replace it with Gorgi Coghlan.

  15. Now, replace James with Matt Doran and do anything to get Magdalena back for the weather and you have a pretty sexy line up to wake up to every morning.

  16. Good idea moving Nuala to Manly for this, it worked a lot better when she was there earlier in the year. She seems to get on well with the hosts.

  17. Interesting article David.

    Any tips on the weather presenter? Did he rule out a sport presenter?

    With the communal space of the life saving club, does that mean no chance of Weekend Wake Up? Surely they need a weekend edition to build the brand and to draw new viewers in ?!

    Perhaps they could poach James Tobin over from Weekend Sunrise. It’s a shame they screwed Magdalena around with Breakfast, she had great chemistry with the team during Sochi.

  18. I really don’t think this will help this show.Where has Magdalena gone? She was very pleasant to watch and knew her stuff,not just a pretty face.My biggest concern….Ten Network and The Logies, Oh No!

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