Daybreak: With Lorraine Kelly and Aled Jones

The trouble is Daybreak is so tainted that a low key relaunch probably isn't the way to go - people need to know it is safe to turn on ITV in the mornings and not be confronted by Kate Garraway (and even that risk isn't being eliminated completely).

What? ...I can deny it... nothing that Channel 4 does over the period of the Paralympics, or continuing on into a remotely possible Breakfast TV venture of their own, will have any damaging impact upon Daybreak beyond the damage that Daybreak has already inflicted upon itself a thousand times over.

We are talking about a brand new programme for an event that will last 2 weeks or so.

Even if Channel 4 have success with this programme, what makes you think the formula for a breakfast time programme entirely devoted to the Paralympics will translate into real viewer numbers for a normal weekday breakfast programme?

I always thought the ratings were worked as a total audience share? This 1m figure you're raising is meaningless if you dont have the figures to compare it to the number of viewers for other shows that aired at the same time. Yes it looks good, but where have the viewers come from?


Have to agree with Ben on this, a low key relaunch is exactly what they need. Which is probably why they chose to launch during the Paralympics. If its good, people will tune in over the following weeks as it slowly develops. If its crap, they have time to change it whilst the audience is distracted by the Paralympics. However i'm not convinced that the Paralympics will be anywhere near as popular as the Olympics was.

I also dont think that Kate Garraway is at fault or to blame for the misfortunes of the ITV breakfast programmes she has been on, nor do i think she is a liability as you say. The failures of the programmes are entirely the fault of the Producers.

They should also ditch those bloody competitions.

I think you're missing the point- the media can influence whether a show is successful or not and Daybreak is a show that is regularly in the papers for its poor performance. Last time it became a bit of a joke on other programmes. So when this relaunch arrives, it will be in the papers again. If its above the 700k it has been getting for most of this year (until the summer holidays) then it will be positive PR for them. The Paralympics could potentially steal viewers from them (although I suspect it will affect BBC Breakfast more) and could hinder the performance during the critical opening weeks.

Just further on the point about the 1m viewers, the viewers won't have to come from anywhere. 6-7am rates very poorly and 7am onwards is usually around 1m anyway. If they have an hour of news followed by the main part, it could end up being listed as two seperate shows, and so the main part from 7am onwards will be the one that is reported with a seemingly inflated audience.

I do agree that a low key launch is the best way forward and just throwing the odd advert around, but after the success of the Olympics, the Paralympics could be successful for Channel 4 and it's silly to suggest there may not be any implications on the new Daybreak. Finally, I'm not saying if it is a success Channel 4 will make a new breakfast show, but they'll almost certainly consider it.

Surely the point is if the Paralympics has an effect then ITV can simply excuse any significant reduction in viewers as being as a direct result and the press can't really slate low ratings at the relaunch as this once in a lifetime event is also going on side by side.

It's about the longer term, they'll want viewing figures to pick up, or at least stay the same. If they loose viewers long term that is when they will have a real problem and the press will lay into them.

Has it been confirmed that Ranvir will start in September? Considering she only went on maternity leave in May (and she can't have been that far gone seeing as there was still only speculation of her pregnancy), September would be quite quick for her to return to work.

Exactly. Its complete stupidity to suggest that a Breakfast Time programme specifically created to cover a major event for two weeks would have any long term impact on a programme that is pre-existing, even if said programme was suffering from problems with quality and viewership.

If Channel 4 decides they want to make their own Breakfast show after the Paralympics they would be stupid to use the ratings from this one-off event to sway their decision when the content of the new programme would be entirely different.

I'm not even going to go into SWatsons MENTAL viewing figures interpretation... suffice it to say they will not see the "seemingly inflated" viewing figures as good as they compare the hours the programmes overlap when looking at whether the programme was a success against the competition. If Daybreak (if that is to be its name) starts at 7, they will compare it to Breakfast from 7.

Whats so MENTAL about it? Maybe you should go into it if I'm that off the mark. The press won't do comparisons like that because the average reader doesn't care about technicalities. Original Daybreak from 6-8.30 was always compared to GMTV 7-8.35am. It all completely depends on how the they want to spin it, and as far as the media are concerned, Lorraine Kelly can do no wrong. The initial success of Daybreak will be seen as whether it is an improvement on what has gone before, and only when there is a marked improvement will they consider beating BBC1.

People who are interested in the figures (can't particularly say I'm one of them, my knowledge is pretty sketchy at best but this one is obvious how it will pan out) and analysts will compare it as you suggest, but that simply doesn't make a good headline.

This time two years ago, neither could Christine or Adrian. They were TV's hot property at the time.

Ah but then they signed on big money contracts, plus it was very easy to pick on the fact that Adrian was a 'grumpy brummy' and Christine was a WAG.

Lorraine is a pro, and she isn't arriving with any preconceived ideas put on her by the press. We know exactly what we're getting, and if she is ridiculed it will be purely personal.
The only facet where Lorraine could underwhelm is the partnership with Aled, will the chemistry be right, and will he look inferior to her?

A&C were totally new to the channel, the genre of program, audience and format and as a result were at the mercy of the media - at least Lorraine has plenty of experience!

The argument that there should be a soft launch because it will eliminate or reduce the chance of press criticism is nonsense.

Daybreak got a high profile launch and was ridiculed because the hosts deemed were out of touch with the viewers. Channel 4's RI:SE had a deliberate soft launch and fizzled out because it wasn't a great programme (still facing a lot of press criticism by the way)

Soft or hard launch, if the new Daybreak is worthy enough, it will prove popular, but surely if the network is confident enough with the new look, they wouldn't think twice about giving it a big launch?

I also don't think the big launch was the whole story regarding Daybreak's problems. We must remember the way ITV treated GMTV before the end, only for Adrian and Christine to look like they'd made Andrew, Emma, Ben and Penny lose their jobs. Even though that wasn't their fault, it was certainly the public perception.