Surf’s up on eye-catching Wake Up beach
The backdrop upstaged the hosts on TEN's new breakfast show, but offers morning television a new point of difference.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under News
The waves were rolling in at Manly on Wake Up as TEN’s new breakfast show hit the airwaves.
Wake Up is the network’s revived attempt in the morning television market after the failure of the Paul Henry-led Breakfast.
The cast of Natarsha Belling, Natasha Exelby and James Mathison have been hand-picked by producer Adam Boland, hired by TEN to make an aggressive pitch.
The “beach house” setting sparkles thanks to its enticing backdrop (thankfully it was a sunny November morning!), as a location-feel but with a studio set. Waiting for the technical requirements to be installed and linked back to Pyrmont has paid off.
The three hosts were seated at a desk (complete with McCafe mugs) for the bulk of the show with one or two segments on a couch. The format is familiar breakfast terrain with chat, news, live crosses, social media and an endless array of “talking points”, the kind of topics that dominate women’s mags: Drinking in front of the kids, too much pressure to look good, Catholicism, are men obsolete?
There were way too many of these at the expense of real news and produced segments.
Nuala Hafner did give me some local news (in Melbourne stories from St. Kilda, Malvern East) but I felt like it was one bulletin repeated and would benefit from more variation. A guest tweeter, Jo Casamento from Fairfax, was seated in the much-publicised McDonald’s outlet.
Adam Boland had indicated the production team would be setting the rundown earlier that morning (rather than the night before), but there was little indication of overnight news. I didn’t feel they were telling me what had happened overnight, but maybe that’s affected by a slow news Sunday here and overseas.
The show is attempting to brand itself as “the new home of Aussie music” kicking off with Eskimo Joe with more guests across the next two weeks. We were spared the obligatory showbiz guru.
Sam Mac was the roving reporter, today behind the beach-house. He even visited some local neighbours, a pair of seniors with their own Wake Up with John and Sandra sign in their living room. Sandra told him she didn’t like his sports chat. Priceless stuff (more from them please?).
There were a few technical hiccups with video clips not at the ready and the odd slip from the hosts, but nothing that can’t be improved.
Of the three hosts, Natarsha Belling is the standout, strategically driving the show as the lead anchor. She is smart, well-spoken, relaxed and likeable.
The show ended (running fractionally overtime) with thankyous to sponsors, Manly Council, Victorian government.
One of the show’s biggest assets is being able to live stream the show on the tenplay app, a great offering for commuters.
Overall, Wake Up is a vast improvement on the Paul Henry experiment -but that wouldn’t be hard. The biggest plus for the show is the eye-catching setting, giving an instant point of difference from the competition. Whether that’s enough to sustain viewers beyond the foreground is still the great unknown.
Meanwhile Today has a refreshed set, with Karl and Lisa back behind a desk (desks are in today) with a huge video wall behind them. It didn’t feel like a complete makeover despite some social media rumours. They even had Steve Jacobs on a Sydney beach.
39 Responses
I watched from 7:40 to 8:10 and have got to say it was dull as dishwater.
If it wasn’t for it being “new” and having Eskimo Joe on the show I prob would of gone back to Sunrise.
Everything seemed like fluff (although John and Sandra were excellent)
Move Tash over to a newsreader role (at the desk) and I think this show could be great with some polish and practice (in both the studio and the control room).
Three hosts is too many when the roles aren’t defined, and the newsreader (as we see on Sunrise/Today) can still maintain a very active role on the panel while just being slightly removed to allow some breathing room for viewers. It was all a bit full on in the first half hour with the guest tweeter also crammed in around the desk.
That would also solve the clunky news format. It didn’t work, and it won’t because there just isn’t enough local content at 6am. Use the newsreader to jump around topics rather than awkward “ok, um, onto a new topic now”. And make the topics a bit more topical (or at least tie them to something that is/has happened — ie “a new report” or “Cardinal Pell has said”). The topics discussed…
Just caught some more of this show from the PVR, but it looks like a pretty standard morning show. I like the set and beach backdrop, but it is very much a set rather than a refit of the existing space. I assume that they want to be able to utilize the space when the show is not on air such as weekends.
The backdrop of for the Adelaide local news was bland and nothing to do with Adelaide, and it had a prerecorded vibe to it.
I like the set for Studio 10, the desk is quite cool. I didn’t think Johnathan Colemane was still around, I assumed he faded into the has-been pile, and didn’t like the shouting advertorial guy showing off his cookware.
It was alright, I didn’t mind it.
@ ohdenny- it was a bit squishy,maybe they could get a desk a bit like the new one on the Today show.
I loved it, personally. But then again, i used to love the Today Show until it started to just feel the same every day.
First show was a bit rough, but first day nerves. Worst parts were the local news, with an ugly cut to the news resulting in a second of the TV-equivalent of dead air. And the general lack of defined segments too was a bit grating, but that could also be the fact I’m just not used to it. On other shows, they move around. here it was a bit confusing.
Otherwise, beautiful location, interesting cast (personally, loved it) and Sam Mac needs more involvement.
Meshel Laurie can’t take on a permanent role on Studio 10 as she starts the new Nova Melbourne breakfast show with Tommy Little in a few months time.
If she had to choose between the 2 I’m guessing Nova would have more money to throw at her than 10 would.
If that was the best the WonderKid could produce …you have paid too much.
Quite a boring, often arrogant (Natarsha), technically incompetent and bland performance.
It reminded me of the 1970’s – maybe similar to the return to Eyewitness News. Big investment but not sure where the money was spent ?
Wake Up seems much like any other breakfast show from what I saw. Studio 10 on the other hand was brilliant. Funny, entertaining, informative, nice set and live audience provides a great vibe. Much different to the other morning offerings, and IMO far superior.
I wasted a few minutes watching/listening to some contrived and tedious discussion about some “hot button” topic. Really? I thought they were going to re-invent the wheel – instead it was “chat by the sea” and inane chatter it was.
As David said – the foundation of any brekky show is news, sport and weather. If you can’t even get these right, then you have no show and no chance of success. The news component was ill-conceived and obviously produced by someone with no real idea of what actually constitutes news.
10 is still ruled by idiots if this is what they are wasting their money on. If this is last more than a few months, then the people in charge have to swallow their pride and rein in their “grand vision” of happily chattering talking heads giving us their spin on not very interesitng topics. It will eventually morph into sometime that approximates the other commercial…
Wake Up needs plenty of fine tuning, there was too much fluff…more real news please. Belling was great.
Studio 10, on the other hand, excelled. Thumbs up for that one.
I quite liked it. The picture was clear and sparkling with good colour rendering without the poor quality, slightly red-tinged look of Today. The lighting was also good and they managed to balance the brightness of the beach backdrop with the hosts at the desk. It actually looked like they were in the outdoors on the beach which is probably the effect they wanted.
The news bulletins from Melbourne need work – the sound was a bit echoey and the backdrop looked too CGI and generic. It should have had a Melbourne image such as Flinders Street Station. I was surprised this didn’t happen as one of Wake Up’s strengths is the two city aspect rather than the endless shots of Martin Place in Sunrise.
I’m glad there is no Hollywood/gossip reporter. Also glad that they didn’t employ the juvenile, smartarse approach of The Project and Late News.
As far as tomorrow is concerned, I…
Watched Wake-Up for about 15 minutes. With a bit of fine tuning it will get better and should be ok but could not wait to get back to Sunrise to watch Sam Sing. Hilarious.
@advoc8 I totally agree Henry had big flaws – namely his often ridiculous political views. But if nothing else it was entertaining.
I just feel these desk discussions by the beach on Wake Up are going to get very boring very quickly. The show needs less opinion and more news content. Plus a better sense of comedic timing.
@Daniel
Re your comment about the premier of Breakfast being more to your liking. you may recall that the starting date was especially brought forward to better suit network Ten’s entire agenda they had planned for Paul Henry, that being political Sh…stirring, and yes Paul Henry was sometimes quick witted and entertaining, but also as per Tens Breakfast’s promos he was there to be confrontational and unfortunately both Ten and Henry were bonkas, for persisting with this agenda well after it had so obviously failed because of Paul Henry.
I agree with David’s first morning review, and totally agree that Natarsha Belling is the stand out performer(hint hint), and whilst the ocean scenery was sparkling this morning, there will be mood affecting gloomy mornings that may require extra efforts.
It is indeed the very first day, and in fairness to all involved, where to me much will depend on how accepting and responsive Adam will be, of honest viewer comments along with their likes and dislikes, and definitely not as it was with Network Ten passing of the point of no return during the Paul Henry debacle, and if changes are needed they should be done subtly ‘but’ early, that way viewers will not know if any changes are proactive or reactive, and with Adam being the professional he is, he will know what hasn’t gelled.
The 3 hosts at the desk did seem to look cluttered, and a little like a children’s show format at times.
If it wasn’t for Eskimo Joe and Sam Mac I would have turned it off altogether. A bit of a shambles really.
I think Natasha Exelby is a great edgy talent and James and Natarsha are quite dull. If people want a happy cheery breakfast show they already have Sunrise. Other than the backdrop and 3 hosts it pretty much feels like a clone.
Dare I say it, I actually preferred the premiere of Breakfast. It went for well over 4 hours and yet I was more engaged with that than Wake Up. Paul Henry was at times bonkas but at least he was equally hilarious as he was outrageous.
Studio 10 on the other hand is excellent. Every member of the panel is awesome. Great laughs and great chemistry.
STUDIO 10 so far is working well. I have always loved Ita and Joe Hilderbrand – there is better chemistry between the 4 regular hosts than the 3 on WAKE UP.
Agree that Meshel Laurie should be a regular.
Only caught 15 mins of the show from 7am this morning, wasn’t too bad. Did a quite flick to Nine, didn’t notice the set alterations, but mainly kept to Sunrise which I generally watch until they go to sports.
Agree with Natarsha Belling being well-spoken, I can’t quite say the same for Natasha Exelby, when she called Sam Mac the show’s “Ambassada”, I think the word she lazily pronounced is “Ambassador”. Her execution is a bit rough around the edges, and I can’t see her delivering any hard hitting news stories speaking like that – best leave those to Natarsha and have James do the light-hearted stories and chatter.
I agree with the chat topics. I only caught a couple of minutes but they were talking about Catholics and it did seem more like a morning show as opposed to a breakfast show.
It definitely needs more news/something more current and the desk seemed very squishy and very close up.
The weakest part of Wake Up was the local news component. It felt like it was inserted and there was only a couple of local stories and national stories. For mind Nuala should do national news on the half hour and then at quarter to and past they should have local newsreaders doing news, sport, weather and traffic and public transport info – especially considering the streaming option. Also watching studio 10 – really like the feel but Meshel Laurie should have been considered as a permanent host .. Very natural and funny
I found it quiet boring ! I did not feel the connection between the three hosts and at times felt awkward ! Watching Studio 10 now and I love it !! So funny and all the hosts are fantastic to watch and the studio audience really helps as well !
It looks like a carbon copy of Sunrise, which I guess is no surprise, considering the involvement of Adam Boland.
Fairly bland and inoffensive.
Didn’t watch much of it, catching up on last nights F1 race.
I hope it works an at some point they have concerts on the beach with top music stars!
The news ticker and clock need to be moved to the very bottom of the screen, they are way too high up on the screen, and a little large!
Natarsha is freaking hilarious – that cackle reminds me of Chrissie Swans infectious cackle.
Love the backdrop.
The other three breaky shows offer live streams, some unmetered on various mobile telcos.