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Wake Up debut “by mid November.”

If there's a show that has had a longer gestation period than this one, it's hard to recall. But the Wake Up team know they have a job ahead of them.

Wake Up Brunch“By mid November…. by mid November” -that was the repeated phrase at yesterday’s Melbourne road trip event for the crew of TEN’s upcoming Wake Up programme.

If there’s a show that has had a longer gestation period than this one, it’s hard to recall. But pinned on their secretive launch date, “by mid November” was the mantra.

For TEN’s Russel Howcroft, who hosted a media brunch, “hyper-local, hyper-local” was the other buzz word, reflecting the show’s plans to present local news bulletins within the show.

Natarsha Belling, Natasha Exelby, James Mathison and Nuala Hafner are certainly hungry to get on air and building on their chemistry as they travel the country ahead of their debut.

“I can’t not be myself, which at times has got me in a spot of bother,” admitted Exelby. “But I think that’s what you’ll be seeing with us. The chemistry tests were so important so that I don’t have to fake liking people that I work with. It’s real. TV doesn’t lie.”

“TV lies,” interrupted Mathison -a blunt punchline, but probably one based in truth.

“You work in advertising!” he even told Howcroft.

So far they’ve visited Ipswich, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Western Sydney, Cabramatta, Parramatta, Central Coast, Melbourne. Adelaide and Perth are next.

Producer Adam Boland is buoyed by plans being on track, with the set now in place in Manly. The show plans to have 3 weeks of rehearsals before hitting screens, unlike its predecessor Breakfast. Nine and Seven are understood to have already adjusted their summer rosters to weather the new competitor.

“One of the key selling points for Wake Up is that we will be  the only breakfast show in the morning with local news, made possible by Federation Square and Nuala Hafner. That was something we wanted to do at Seven for 5 years but couldn’t because of the way it was set up,” he said.

“(Wake Up) has 2 studios essentially. We have 1 which is our Beach House at Manly and 2 which is Federation Square.”

Boland also mentioned that recent reports about Sunrise scoring ratings within their first six months on air were “a revision of history.”

“We launched Sunrise in 2001 but we didn’t take leadership until 2004. But it was worth doing. The pay-off was pretty significant,” he said.

“So for us, even though we accept the challenge is pretty big it’s one worth taking.”

The show launches as part of new block programming with TEN Eyewitness News and Studio 10 with advertorials in the latter already sold for the next 12 months.

By the end of the media brunch Howcroft was avidly pushing bumper stickers for the show.

After last year’s short-lived Breakfast experiment, cynical media seemed to be hinting they wanted to try it before they buy it.

8 Responses

  1. it continually amazes me how this country is so dominated by the coast line.. why isnt Canberra in that list of towns…. i know this is off topic… but the problems all the cities have (transport/ infrastructure) would be null if people wanted to live in regional areas… hence fed government needs to look at it… hence the media needs not be so concentrated on Sydney Melb Brisb (primarily)…. rant over, thanks for listening

  2. I did watch Natasha when she was part time news reader on the former show with Paul Henry. I found her to initiate arguments right through the whole show with Henry.Not my fav” on air person”.On the other hand Nartasha Belling is a darling with a smile that would light up a room!

  3. “Won’t be long until she has herself entrenched in trouble I’d say.”
    You betcha. And it won’t be an accident either. Controversy = ratings.

  4. It’s certainly been a longgggg drawn out affair but I’m looking forward to seeing what Ten have to offer. I turned off breakfast tv years ago due to me dislike of egotistical male hosts. In my opinion Natarsha Belling is made for this role. Natasha Exelby could be a loose canon though. Won’t be long until she has herself entrenched in trouble I’d say.

  5. It can’t go worse than Breakfast did!

    I still can’t work out the point of having the news done from Melbourne. Is it just so they can record as many versions as they want?

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