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Rumour: TEN to revive Good Morning Australia?

Is TEN planning to replace Wake Up with a GMA reboot hosted by Matt White & Kerri-Anne?

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2014-05-16_0052bThe jungle tom-toms are beating on the future of Wake Up and making music that TEN may be mulling a return of Good Morning Australia, potentially fronted by Matt White and Kerri-Anne Kennerley.

White recently made the move from Seven to TEN for its upcoming V8s coverage, but CEO Hamish McLennan also confirmed “another show” in development would be announced closer to his July starting date.

Whispers are gathering that GMA could be produced from TEN’s Pyrmont studios, ending the expensive Manly-based location put in place by former producer Adam Boland.

Good Morning Australia aired as a breakfast show from 1981 – 1991 with KAK prior to her lengthy stint at Nine for Midday and Kerri-Anne. The GMA brand was successfully revived as a morning show for Bert Newton running from 1992 – 2005.

Since the arrival of Peter Meakin as Head of News and Current Affairs at TEN Wake Up has so far avoided any major changes to address its ailing ratings, which hover around the 30,000 mark without improvement. That’s despite on-the-record confirmation that news presenter Nuala Hafner would relocate from Melbourne to Sydney and a weather presenter would be introduced.

This week the show came under fire after a pensioner who questioned Tony Abbott was found to have Labor allegiances, which were not disclosed to the audience. Rather than finding ways to defend the show a network spokesperson admitted it got it wrong.

“Wake Up should have known and disclosed Vilma Ward’s links to the Labor Party,” they said.

But there is  also constant chatter in the industry about why TEN is persisting in breakfast television when it has more pressing concerns in primetime.

Yesterday TV Tonight asked TEN if it was committed to Wake Up in the long term.

A TEN spokesperson said, “All rumours. No changes planned.”

While rumours are commonplace in a gossip-heavy industry sometimes you also have to read between the lines.

Update: KAK denied she had signed on but told news.com.au said anything was on the cards.

“Thirty years of 5am starts, hmmm, let me think about that,” Kennerley said.

“Look it’s sort of back to the future.

“All I know is there are clearly a few issues.”

29 Responses

  1. I have always said KAK is not done yet. She can replace 5 woman just by herself. She needs a studio audience and a piano player and you will have a ripper of a show. And…..interviews which last 6 minutes! I am sick of having 25 subjects in 4 minutes. Let me produce the show, add variety and you have a winner! Bring back Midday ten!

  2. I reckon ten needs a new style breakfast show. Music based with gossip and light short interviews. Throw in some comedy and news in brief (1 min tops). It needs to be show one can listen to rather than watch. One might say radio on TV.

  3. @ tomothyd May 16, 2014 at 10:37 am –
    I still don’t know why they axed David and Kim,
    David Reyne resigned…said he needed a rest…as the show was named after the participants…that was the end.

  4. Ten just does not realise that there is no more room for breakfast TV!!! They need to come up with something unique. I say Ten should scrap Wake Up! Keep Studio 10, Relocate Matho to the Project and Tarsh back to being a news reporter. Nuala should read the latest news on the Project. To replace Wake Up! why don’t Ten have animation fixation?? It can compete better with other channels and a lot of kids that are waking up to go to school would watch it. We don’t need 4 breakfast shows for a population of just 20 million!!!

  6. Whilst I am one of the few people that actually likes Wake Up (much better than the alternative as its more fun and I love both hosts), I still don’t know what they were thinking having the studio over in Manly. Such a lonely location. So many times I’ve seen them mike someone up in the Pyrmont studio to do a live cross as the Manly location is too far to get to. It happened with Jesse Tyler Ferguson recently and showed up just how risky that decision was. It would be a shame to see Nat and James lose their hosting roles on this program as I wake up to Wake Up.

  9. David, how much revenue do the morning shows gain from all those infomercials? If Studio 10 was the drop these it would instantly be far better than its compeditors and surely ratings would improve?

    I can’t believe anyone would actually sit through the same infomercials every day. How many time do you watch someone scream about a juicer before you change the channel? Either you buy someone when you first see it or you never buy it and get sick of hearing the same thing about it everyday – no-one enjoys informercials!

  13. Agree with mixman000 am not sure if this show can offer anything different and Sunrise or Today, think it would have to be a complete new concept to be a hit, but one never knows until it hits the screen.

  14. Kerri-Anne could do this job on her head. She has done years and years of live TV and she is always across the news and politics. She has the gravitas to host this type of show. She would be a great choice. Matt White not quite right I don’t think.

  15. Besides the backdrop, Wake Up really doesn’t offer anything that Sunrise or Today don’t other than different hosts.

    I say meld Wake Up and Studio 10 into one show, then maybe there would be room for a Good Morning Australia.

    Have that round table discussion early in the morning, with throws to news and weather updates. That would at least offer a point of difference. Sarah Harris to host/moderate, switch out Joe for James, keep Jess, Ita and the guest panelist idea, and have Natarsha Belling do news updates. I would also bring back that metro whip around idea that Breakfast used to do with reporters live in each state presenting brief stories from the state.

    It’s similar enough to The Project to bookend, but different enough not to have people sick of it.

    Then there might be room for a Good Morning Australia show…maybe that could be based at the Manly studio?

  16. I’d rather Ten just added both of them to the Wake Up team. Cheaper and probably more effective than starting a show from scratch.

    And thinking practically where will this show be broadcast from? The Pyrmont studios are already being used by Studio 10, and doing it from the newsroom doesn’t really work as we saw with Breakfast.

    Wake Up feels fresh, it’s just that the execution is poor. GMA feels dated and desperate.

  17. I think the most disappointing thing about Wake Up is the lack of changes made in 2014 since new producers have been on board. It’s ratings are just not acceptable and changes have needed to be made urgently.

    I think a return of GMA as a brand would be a nice thing…but KAK as a full time host is a no no. She is still a great on air talent….but not full time. Maybe a fill in from time to time.

    Mainly is a nice point of difference setting….but it does not have much credibility and must be tough to get guests to travel there for interviews….Especially high profile guests when this show so desperate to give us a reason to watch.

    James has been presenting much better of late…but content still is lacking.

  19. Hmmmm…. not sure this is a great idea. The choice of hosts seems odd – I’m not sure KAK could keep up with live breaking news during breakfast and Matt White is about as interesting as a vanilla milkshake (not to mention the large age gap – remember when Tracey Grimshaw was referred to as Karl’s Mum?).

    The best type of breakfast television is that which can move quickly and adapt to breaking news (political, disasters etc). I seriously doubt either KAK or Matt have any desire or ability to do this (Matt did the absolute bare minimum at TT avoiding any kind of live interviews or doing his own stories).

    What I think would work is moving Studio 10 into breakfast, so it could drop those awful infomercials and keep it as a panel show (not 2 hosts and then newsreaders like the other breakfast shows do). S10 has shown it can move quickly. It is already a more serious show than…

  20. I’d rather have it the following way:
    6am – Early News
    7am – US Content
    9am – GMA with Gorgi Coghlan and Matt White
    11am – Morning News

  21. I honestly cannot see ‘Good Morning Australia’ achieving ratings higher than what Wake Up is. Matt White and KAK seems a very odd pairing to me. I watch Wake Up every morning and love it. If people haven’t made the switch, it proves Sunrise and Today are just too dominant in the market. I’d prefer to see a relaunch of Wake Up and relocation to the Pyrmont Studios. Whatever happens, I hope Tarsh, James and Nuala still have a place in the 10 network.

  24. I believe this would have a chance of working. Unlike Breakfast and Wake Up, it is a brand many people grew up with, so will have a following to build off. A stronger lead in would also boost Studio 10 even further. The question has to be asked Would KAK commit to something like this? Not everyone’s an Ita.

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