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Non-stop news for ABC Breakfast

No commercial breaks, non-stop news, 4 hours straight. How do the hosts of ABC News Breakfast do it?

2012-12-18_2132There’s a moment in the first episode of Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom that Michael Rowland recognises well.

“Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) sits down, suit on, mics up and there’s nothing on the autocue but ‘Vamp.’

“We vamp a lot,” he says of ABC News Breakfast.

“There are scripts but a lot of the show, especially on a fast-moving morning when a story is breaking, is vamping off the top of our heads, talking to pictures, telling you what we know from Tweet Deck or emails and prompts in the ear.”

Co-Host Karina Carvalho agrees, “A good example was the morning when Hurricane Sandy hit and we had various live shots along the New Jersey coast and others in New York so it was a lot of talking to pictures.”

ABC’s breakfast show has been on air for four years, with two and half of those simulcast on ABC News 24. It airs live around the country on the latter (screening as early as 3am in Perth) and 6am local time on ABC1. In summer it recently extended until 10am.

“You do have to eat well to make sure you can sustain yourself for four hours, because we don’t have commercial breaks. So we don’t have long gaps where you can disappear during big segments,” says Carvalho.

“So I think it’s about making sure you pace yourself.”

“And have lots of coffee,” Rowland adds.

“Often you’ll be juggling 3 or 4 different stories or ideas in your head. Story X is coming up so you quickly get across that, Story B is on a live feed coming in from Cairo so you read up about the latest Egyptian situation. At the same time you’re conversing about the light issue of the day.

“It’s quite easy to be relaxed because it’s a relaxed format, but it’s a bit of a discipline to go from happy and joking about a story to going to 100 people who have died in a monsoon.”

Carvalho joined in January when Virginia Trioli took maternity leave and is due to return to ABC News 24 duties sometime in early 2013. Despite the early morning wake-up, she’s loved every minute of it.

“I don’t know how Michael does it. He has a family and kids whereas I only have to look after myself. It doesn’t register with me that I’m waking up in the middle of the night. That’s the time that I wake up and go to work,” she says.

Rowland says there is a positive side to the early starts.

“It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but your body adapts to this new normal that is getting up at 3:00 every morning and going full tong for 5 hours or so. Then leaving work while everybody’s coming into work,” he says.

“But it’s a great line of Virginia’s and I’m happy to plagiarise it, that ‘Breakfast TV is very family friendly.’ You actually get to see more of your kids because you’re at school pick-ups, after-school activities and dinner. You go to bed at the same time, that’s the only down side.”

Whilst Sunrise and Today juggle both News and Light Entertainment, ABC’s offering takes pride in avoiding the lighter content, giving them a point of difference. They are joined by Paul Kennedy in Sport and Vanessa O’Hanlon with weather.

“The basic structure of our show is that we try to hit the headlines at the top of the clock and the bottom of the clock and every quarter hour or so. So if you are tuning in for 5 or 15 minutes you’ll get the lead story, a bit of finance, weather and off you go. But I’m sure that applies to a lot of the other shows as well,” he says.

“Beyond the production desk outside we have two planners who work during the day and overnight lining up guests, as well as our producers, the studio crew, floor manager, the autocue operator –as breakfast TV goes it’s a really small team.”

Indeed, the ABC model is automated cameras, sans studio cameramen.

“Compared to our commercial competitors we run on the smell of an oily rag which increases the pressure and challenge, without the extra staff and army of resources that others get by with.

“So you do have to think a lot on your feet, or dare I say, seat, as the morning goes on.”

Adds Carvalho, “But we’re lucky that at the time we go to air we’re able to tap into a lot of stories from Europe and the Middle East and the United States. So we’re doing “new” news as opposed to repeating what’s happened locally the day before.”

This year a fourth player entered the arena, with TEN’s similarly-titled Breakfast, with its numbers trailing ABC’s show.

Rather than shrink from a schoolyard fight, Rowland saw it as an opportunity.

“I looked at it on the odd day I was off and they were closer to us than Nine or Seven, and that was their point of difference from Nine and Seven. They were a much more “newsy” programme which I thought was terrific. They had an obnoxious front man, but that’s by the by…” he quips.

“But it was a good catalyst for us to redouble our efforts to put out an even better show, because we knew once TEN was on it would be a good chance for a lot of existing viewers and for those who may not have watched breakfast TV, to actually watch and channel surf the alternatives.

“Our numbers have gone up through the year and I’m sure it’s generated by the new interest in TEN and the burst of publicity they got in the genre of breakfast TV.”

Given that they are so focussed on News, I can’t help but ask what do the pair have on those laptops they are always reading?

“I’m on eBay a fair bit,” Rowland jokes.

“But primarily it’s the internal News operating system called iNews, which is the rundown, scripts and is forever changing over the 4 hours. So you pre-read intros as much as you can. But we both rely very heavily on Twitter, and Tweet Deck in particular, primarily as a news source hooked into big outlets which is invaluable, especially when there is a big news story happening.”

“News breaks on Twitter now before it does on the wire. AFP or Reuters will put up  a breaking flash in Twitter at least 10 minutes before they manage to get it on the wires,” Carvalho observes.

“But there’s also the immediate feedback. We invite our audience to have a conversation with us so the easiest and most instant way for them to do that is via Twitter.”

Is her feedback frequently dominated by comments about her appearance? Even on the ABC there’s no escaping it.

“You’re a woman, you work in TV, you just accept it.”

More seriously, I wonder at what point a tweet about News leaps from the Tweet Deck to the show’s own breaking news?

“We don’t jump at the first sign, no matter how sexy or flashy it is. We always double source stories via BBC, NY Times, Washington Post, AFP, Reuters,” Rowland insists.

“It’s usually one of the news agencies that breaks it first then another follows within a few minutes, so that’s strong enough for us to go with and then build on that.”

Aaron Sorkin would be proud.

ABC News Breakfast airs 6-10am on ABC1 and is simulcast AEDT on ABC News 24.

26 Responses

  1. @HardcorePrawn theres too much actual news on ABC for most commercial channel watchers to digest, its not dumbed down enough.
    When i have watched morning tv i’ve tended to channel surf between each show between ad breaks or boring bits, found myself landing on ABC Breakfast more often though because the commercial channels have become worse & worse over the last few yrs because of, the ridiculous amount of ad breaks, the overly fake cheerfulness (which is why i was one of the few people that actually enjoyed Tens show), and the dumbness of things they call news, plus when they do interview anyone interesting they cut it off in less than 5 mins so they can go to yet another ad break.
    Must admit i didnt give ABC a go in the first place because i find them a little too serious in tone for entertainment purposes, i was pleasantly suprised with their balanced mix of serious news presentation & lighter discussion etc. And yes Katrina being nice too look at helps!

  2. Great interview, David. Michael seems like one of the nicest gentlemen in tv. I too prefer Karina, hesitations and all. She is far more natural. They have great chemistry. I have switched from Today to Breakfast when i turn to morning news.

  3. I’m surprised by all the love for Karina. Is it just because she’s pretty??? Every time she interviews there’s just a lot of ummms and aaahhhs. Annoys the hell out of me. Virginia great and her and Michael are good together.

  4. It strikes me as a damned shame that ABC News Breakfast rates so poorly, when compared to 7 and 9. It’s a quality news program, with personable presenters (I’m another one in Team Karina, and will miss her when Virginia returns), and relies on the facts rather than opinion.
    Sports fans are also well served by the ABC’s broader coverage too.

    Can it really be the case that the majority of Australian viewers prefer their breakfast news peppered with ads, sponsors’ messages, cross-promotions, and glib dialogue from tenuous “experts”?

    It’s also interesting to discover that ABC News Breakfast has such a small team.
    I remember viewing that clip where the cast and crew of Ten’s breakfast show walked out, leaving Paul Henry alone, and I was amazed to see how many people were on set.

  5. Which explains why a lot of is it is false. And why you get reports out of Newtown that the shooter’s mother was killed at the school, and it was his brother that first was the shooter, and then an accomplice when all he was was a witness.

    You can do news well or fast, but not both. And for doing bad news fast nothing beats the internet anyway.

  6. I’ll stop watching News Breakfast when Trioli comes back.

    Karina makes the show so much more easier on the eyes.

    And yes she is definitely an underused talent.

  7. Yes I am a big fan of ABC News Breakfast, I got bored with all the chummy fluff on 7 & 9.

    However, there is one thing I disagree upon. They do have ad breaks….normally leading up to the hur there are promos for other ABC shows and sometimes interviews recorded earlier are repeated, so they do get a slight breather, still way better than the comp.

  8. Oh dear – I think I’ll stop watching when Trioli returns. She has a stilted and egotistic manner that in no way comapres to Karina, who comes across as warm and natural.
    It will be a sad day, but I will stop watching… but agree that Karina needs to be found another show.

  9. It is the only one that I watch and more recently just listen to the audio while on the computer but I would have no problem looking at Karina Carvalho for 4 hours straight.

  10. Thanks David for that informative article. I don’t have time to watch breakfast TV myself but I think I’d prefer ABC’s alternative to the commercial television’s lighter options.

  11. “And have lots of coffee,” Rowland adds”.
    But, with no breaks, those toilets better not be at the other end of the building.
    “News” Breakfast is what it is. Not cross-promotion, product placement, inane waffle from panels of “experts” commercial version.

  12. On my limited viewing of 24’s breakfast show (that is, when I’m travelling and I actually watch television in the morning) Karina Carvalho has to be one of the best talents on television, who is surely under-utilised where she is. Someone should find something more for her to do.

  13. So glad i switched to ABC News Breakfast. It’s the best breakfast show and much more informative, and the crew are much better than what Sunrise and Today have. Although Virginia can’t come back soon enough. Not impressed with Karina, i don’t think she interviews well and is always fumbling her words.

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