Talk raged today on a subject rarely spoken about outside the hours of 7am and 9am.
ITV’s ditching of GMTV in favour of Chiles and Bleakley’s re-imagining of morning television (which actually turned out startlingly similar) has opened up some public debate on the quality of TV before most people are properly awake.
Various media outlets, including The Guardian and the London Evening Standard, have said that viewers are disappointed, bored or downright angry with the new ‘Daybreak’ ITV1 studio morning show. There’s obvious comparisons to it’s predecessor and the studio decor, but really it’s all about the fact that after nearly 20 years there’s a different program on ITV in the morning (even though it’s mainly the exact same content repackaged).
The whole thing reminds me people’s reactions to any change Facebook makes to its layout – give it a few weeks and people get used to and end up preferring the new layout. They like what they’re used to and don’t want to accept something that is so initially different and scary (even if it isn’t).
But over-reactive punters aside, one growing question that I thought was raised was Channel 4’s position in the whole breakfast TV landscape at the moment.
As you know, they aired the wild shenanigans of The Big Breakfast from 1991 until 2002 and then it’s attempt at rebranding spewed out RI:SE – that was promptly dropped a few months later. Channel 4 were stung by that experience, it seems, and have since been happy to lay back and play old repeats of sitcoms and Big Brother in the 7am to 9am slot.
One thing I noticed get brought up numerous times (on Twitter and comments to newspaper articles) was to ‘bring back Big Breakfast!’ and figured there must be an easy-to-figure-out reason why, eight years after RI:SE, Channel 4 are still adamant to ignore the commercial opportunity that big numbers in breakfast TV can bring.
Channel 4 in the morning – the numbers
The graph below shows the number of adults (16+) watching Channel 4 between 7am and 9am weekdays between the years 1993 to 2010. The number is in average thousands, and I’ve taken away any programmes that aired only once or twice (that tended to be movies or suchlike that skewed the results).
The Big Breakfast Years of 1993-2002: Big Breakfast ruled the roost for Channel 4 for a number of years, with peaks during the Chris Evans and Gabby Roslin years of just over a million people watching over the two hours. With changes of presenters and, crucially, the usual decay of audience that time brings to shows that were once so fresh, the ratings slipped over the decade it was on. The show was cancelled in March 2002 with an average thousands of just over 200,000 adults.
The RI:SE years of 2002-2003: promising to revamp mornings, RI:SE was a technically adept morning show that’s stale presence was a turn off to viewers. It average only 230,000 adults (so a tiny rise on the end of Big Breakfast) and was cancelled in December 2003.
The nothing years of 2004-2010: Sitcom repeats have been the pick-of-the-decade for Channel 4 in its morning slot, which they must have seen as a cheap solution to a problem they were ultimately losing to GMTV and BBC Breakfast. Repeats of Friends and Will & Grace, as well as Big Brother during the summer months, have held a healthy 16-34 year old profile but the numbers are at a lower number than at any time Big Breakfast was on the air. Channel 4 mornings currently average around 180,000 adults in the morning hours.
A look at the numbers from 1993 to 2010 shows a steady fall, yes, but with two channels (ITV1 and BBC1) now playing out decidedly straight-edge, newsy programming between 7am and 9am now, this might be the prime time that Big Breakfast allows the mayhem back on the box. Plus if trends hold true, a return at the worst possible numbers The Big Breakfast achieved (in 2002) is better than what the current repeats are doing today.
The new guy in charge, David Abraham, has yet to make a significant change to the schedule (Big Brother’s cancellation was pre-Abraham) and must acknowledge that the news-heavy coverage on the BBC and the often embarrassingly housewife-friendly GMTV / Daybreak on ITV1 have potentially reached the stage that The Big Breakfast reached in 2002 – the audiences are craving for something truly new to watch in the morning.
Another point worth mentioning is that it’s high time Channel 4 regained some of its edginess and unpredictability that The Big Breakfast originally helped the channel to gain. Abraham is also a branding kind – he helped the UKTV channels rebrand and was one of the main people behind turning UKTV G2 into ‘Dave’ and in bringing back another nineties favourite, Red Dwarf, to the small screen once again – and must understand that endless repeats in the morning do nothing for the channel and the ratings decline confirms that commercially it’s not a wise option to stay stagnant in the morning arena either.
And whilst The Big Breakfast also helped launch the career of Chris Evans (who is ironically still leading the field in the morning, but this time on radio), if Channel 4 decide to bring it back they could look at finding new talent to bring to the screen in much the same way (and go firmly against ITV’s throw-cash-at-everything strategy). I’d potentially suggest some of the bright stars from Edinburgh’s comedy festival this year…
The buzz that amounted thanks to ITV1 and Daybreak has left the door open for Channel 4 to shake things up properly and allow a bit of unpredictability in the morning. The show was an institution in the nineties and has a wonderful nostalgia about it, which should be left untouched (Zig and Zag would have to return, in-tact and exactly as everyone remembers them), which will bring in the 25-34’s in their droves.
Instead of providing more reasons for the show to come back, even though I think it’s resoundingly obvious it’s wanted and would be an almost definite success, I’ll end this with a couple of videos worth watching to remind us just how good it genuinely was in its heyday.
This one.
And this.
And finally this one (not funny but really interesting).
And the theme tune of course… I’d switch on every morning just to hear that and for those getting-ready-for-school memories to flood back.
Tags: Adrian Chiles, BARB, BBC, Big Breakfast, Channel 4, David Abraham, Daybreak, GMTV, ITV, television, TV
Mediacrity 
But seriously, why DOESN’T Channel 4 bring back The Big Breakfast?
6 SepTalk raged today on a subject rarely spoken about outside the hours of 7am and 9am.
ITV’s ditching of GMTV in favour of Chiles and Bleakley’s re-imagining of morning television (which actually turned out startlingly similar) has opened up some public debate on the quality of TV before most people are properly awake.
Various media outlets, including The Guardian and the London Evening Standard, have said that viewers are disappointed, bored or downright angry with the new ‘Daybreak’ ITV1 studio morning show. There’s obvious comparisons to it’s predecessor and the studio decor, but really it’s all about the fact that after nearly 20 years there’s a different program on ITV in the morning (even though it’s mainly the exact same content repackaged).
The whole thing reminds me people’s reactions to any change Facebook makes to its layout – give it a few weeks and people get used to and end up preferring the new layout. They like what they’re used to and don’t want to accept something that is so initially different and scary (even if it isn’t).
But over-reactive punters aside, one growing question that I thought was raised was Channel 4’s position in the whole breakfast TV landscape at the moment.
As you know, they aired the wild shenanigans of The Big Breakfast from 1991 until 2002 and then it’s attempt at rebranding spewed out RI:SE – that was promptly dropped a few months later. Channel 4 were stung by that experience, it seems, and have since been happy to lay back and play old repeats of sitcoms and Big Brother in the 7am to 9am slot.
One thing I noticed get brought up numerous times (on Twitter and comments to newspaper articles) was to ‘bring back Big Breakfast!’ and figured there must be an easy-to-figure-out reason why, eight years after RI:SE, Channel 4 are still adamant to ignore the commercial opportunity that big numbers in breakfast TV can bring.
Channel 4 in the morning – the numbers
The graph below shows the number of adults (16+) watching Channel 4 between 7am and 9am weekdays between the years 1993 to 2010. The number is in average thousands, and I’ve taken away any programmes that aired only once or twice (that tended to be movies or suchlike that skewed the results).
The Big Breakfast Years of 1993-2002: Big Breakfast ruled the roost for Channel 4 for a number of years, with peaks during the Chris Evans and Gabby Roslin years of just over a million people watching over the two hours. With changes of presenters and, crucially, the usual decay of audience that time brings to shows that were once so fresh, the ratings slipped over the decade it was on. The show was cancelled in March 2002 with an average thousands of just over 200,000 adults.
The RI:SE years of 2002-2003: promising to revamp mornings, RI:SE was a technically adept morning show that’s stale presence was a turn off to viewers. It average only 230,000 adults (so a tiny rise on the end of Big Breakfast) and was cancelled in December 2003.
The nothing years of 2004-2010: Sitcom repeats have been the pick-of-the-decade for Channel 4 in its morning slot, which they must have seen as a cheap solution to a problem they were ultimately losing to GMTV and BBC Breakfast. Repeats of Friends and Will & Grace, as well as Big Brother during the summer months, have held a healthy 16-34 year old profile but the numbers are at a lower number than at any time Big Breakfast was on the air. Channel 4 mornings currently average around 180,000 adults in the morning hours.
A look at the numbers from 1993 to 2010 shows a steady fall, yes, but with two channels (ITV1 and BBC1) now playing out decidedly straight-edge, newsy programming between 7am and 9am now, this might be the prime time that Big Breakfast allows the mayhem back on the box. Plus if trends hold true, a return at the worst possible numbers The Big Breakfast achieved (in 2002) is better than what the current repeats are doing today.
The new guy in charge, David Abraham, has yet to make a significant change to the schedule (Big Brother’s cancellation was pre-Abraham) and must acknowledge that the news-heavy coverage on the BBC and the often embarrassingly housewife-friendly GMTV / Daybreak on ITV1 have potentially reached the stage that The Big Breakfast reached in 2002 – the audiences are craving for something truly new to watch in the morning.
Another point worth mentioning is that it’s high time Channel 4 regained some of its edginess and unpredictability that The Big Breakfast originally helped the channel to gain. Abraham is also a branding kind – he helped the UKTV channels rebrand and was one of the main people behind turning UKTV G2 into ‘Dave’ and in bringing back another nineties favourite, Red Dwarf, to the small screen once again – and must understand that endless repeats in the morning do nothing for the channel and the ratings decline confirms that commercially it’s not a wise option to stay stagnant in the morning arena either.
And whilst The Big Breakfast also helped launch the career of Chris Evans (who is ironically still leading the field in the morning, but this time on radio), if Channel 4 decide to bring it back they could look at finding new talent to bring to the screen in much the same way (and go firmly against ITV’s throw-cash-at-everything strategy). I’d potentially suggest some of the bright stars from Edinburgh’s comedy festival this year…
The buzz that amounted thanks to ITV1 and Daybreak has left the door open for Channel 4 to shake things up properly and allow a bit of unpredictability in the morning. The show was an institution in the nineties and has a wonderful nostalgia about it, which should be left untouched (Zig and Zag would have to return, in-tact and exactly as everyone remembers them), which will bring in the 25-34’s in their droves.
Instead of providing more reasons for the show to come back, even though I think it’s resoundingly obvious it’s wanted and would be an almost definite success, I’ll end this with a couple of videos worth watching to remind us just how good it genuinely was in its heyday.
This one.
And this.
And finally this one (not funny but really interesting).
And the theme tune of course… I’d switch on every morning just to hear that and for those getting-ready-for-school memories to flood back.
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Tags: Adrian Chiles, BARB, BBC, Big Breakfast, Channel 4, David Abraham, Daybreak, GMTV, ITV, television, TV