Craig McPherson: Not easy on Breakfast TV

EXCLUSIVE: Backstage dramas, clashing personalities, viewer protests, gossip, egos, salaries and leaked audio…. morning television is centrestage when it comes to entertainment news in Australia.

Whether it’s Today‘s very own Uber-audio, a street protest outside Sunrise or brussel sprouts thrown on Studio 10, they are never far away from the headlines.

But as Seven’s Head of News and Current Affairs Craig McPherson knows too well, personality-driven shows and the 24 / 7 news cycle carry extra scrutiny, especially from online news reportage.

“It’s not easy for Breakfast television where there are 3 or 4 hours of rolling TV and they have to exude personality, have an opinion, be engaging and not be bland,” he tells TV Tonight.

“The Daily Mail exists on people clicking onto articles. That’s their life and times. They know the names, programmes, subjects that will create clicks. So if they can mix those names up with some of the themes…. in their world they have struck gold.

“It’s the ‘new norm’ and it is what we have to put up with. I can’t see it going to change. We have to be stronger in not letting them get away with some of the things they think they can get away with. When they want to attack presenters over remarks they occasionally take out of context, to suit a clickbait headline, it is something we must police. If it’s not addressed it will be something that becomes more common.”

Sunrise has won all 6 weeks of ratings so far this year, albeit with numbers that are down on their best in show. So far Georgie Gardner’s return to Today is yet to claim a week over David Koch & Sam Armytage.

“We win every week. Sometimes the gap is great, sometimes it’s close. It’s a day-to-day proposition, like all of what we do,” he says.

“I don’t think I’m telling you anything that isn’t known, but the (television) audience has diminished, and certainly in the mornings it has as well. I think it is more symptomatic of the current climate than specific to breakfast television.

“There are days where Sunrise does get to the 300,000s, lately it has been 270,000 – 280,000s. There are odd days where it gets into the 300,000s, but we haven’t hit the colder months yet.”

“Some topics probably require a little bit more depth”

Yet the show made news for the wrong reasons this month when a discussion about Indigenous children at-risk drew headlines and a street protest. A week later it revisited the topic with 3 Indigenous community members.

“Some topics probably require a little bit more depth,” McPherson concedes. “I still believe that opinions and free speech are what that programme and other programmes rely on. The reaction to it… it is what it is. I wouldn’t say they behaved as well as they could have, in the protest sense.

“It’s an issue that community experts want to have a discussion about and from what I’m told by the people at Sunrise, when they were sounding out some of the experts they weren’t happy with -to use their term- the ‘confected outrage’ that emanated from that segment. Whilst some of what they said they obviously didn’t agree with, at least it did open up an issue that should be able to be discussed with a degree of civility.”

On a more positive note, Weekend Sunrise has recently welcomed Basil Zempalis to replace Andrew O’Keefe. It has triggered some questions about whether the Perth-based presenter could be a successor to David Koch in the future? McPherson isn’t giving anything away.

“David’s in the chair and he’s doing a great job! Basil’s come in and he’s doing really well on the weekend. David is ticking away nicely, they are a good, harmonious team. But that’s something for down the track and certainly not something that is front-of-mind with me.”

Craig McPherson, formerly Executive Producer of Today Tonight, returned to lead Seven’s News in 2015. It followed two years at Nine as head of development for news and current affairs, developing the one hour bulletin and rebuilding Nine’s brand in Adelaide and Perth. Overseeing  Seven News, Sunday Night, Sunrise, The Morning Show, The Daily Edition and Today Tonight (Adelaide / Perth), he is very familiar with the markets and their inherent challenges, but there is plenty to crow about.

“We are still number 1”

“We are still number 1 in network News, winning every week in Sunrise, with The Morning Show. So we are continuing the leadership in News & Public Affairs,” he continues.

“We are still chipping away in Sydney & Melbourne and Brisbane is the toss of a coin. So we are narrowing the gaps slowly but surely.

“Perth & Adelaide continue to dominate and one hopes that will proceed. There is a lot of money spent by Channel Seven in those two markets. We have invested in them for a long time, where they have been a bit of a desert island for the other place. Australia is Australia. It’s not just the East Coast.

“But our focus where we have to improve is Sydney & Melbourne.”

McPherson has made personnel changes behind the scenes but points to stories told with accuracy, and the news mix as key factors to effecting change. Getting viewers to make the switch is much harder.

“I would put our News service up against any news service, so I think it’s a matter of time. I don’t say that with false hope, I firmly believe we will get there in Sydney & Melbourne,” he explains.

“At 6pm the News demographics are essentially 55+, and even older quite frankly is where you get your bulk numbers. Those people are relatively loyal so it’s not so easy to switch habits. So it takes time.

“Up north we have put Max Futcher in, which was an opportunity to change things a bit up there.

“The people in front of the camera I have no issue with in terms of likeability, they are our future. It was more about getting things right behind the scenes, where what we do which is secondary to the presenters, if you like.”

“Would we like a 7:00 show? Sure.”

Today Tonight continues to win in Adelaide and Perth, partnering with 30 minute bulletins. Since the show exited East Coast cities in 2014, the question of its return is often raised, especially since McPherson returned.

“It is still going well in Adelaide and Perth but would we like a 7:00 show? Sure. Is it going to happen? No. Certainly not in the near future. The economics just aren’t there at the moment. It’s not a viable option,” he reveals.

“(Home and Away) is a very successful programme. You could say it’s part of Seven’s DNA for now. I’m not sure it will be there forever, but I’m not a programmer.”

Tomorrow: Part 2: Sunday Night, Murder Uncovered