I love the opening shot of the ITV tower so much. It really gives the show a sense of place, a proud statement to be broadcasting from the absolute centre of our the city. American shows do this quite often - and the BBC used to do it a lot with TV Centre - so it's great to see GMB start with this.
Is it CGI though? How did they make the tower look so clean and glossy, when we all know it's a drab concrete monster from the 60s?
For those who missed the beginning, here's the only clip of Good Morning Britain so far on YouTube:
I think Lorraine's studio hasn't thought through the location of the kitchen area. It overlooks the place where she does interviews, and in the interview before, it looked so out of place in the middle of a serious interview. Plus, the noise of a sizzling pan is being picked up on the microphone as well. Not very well considered. The poor chef is having to look busy because he's on shot so often.
I'm surprised they remixed the Lorraine theme and not give her a new one. That is too closely linked to Daybreak. I do like the added vocal though.
I'd argue though the way they keep changing Lorraine every time they relaunch the main show associates the Lorraine with Daybreak etc. In GMTV days, it was a tv station and Lorraine or LK Today was part of GMTV brand but now on air wise i think Lorraine and Good Morning Britain separate shows. I'd even argue to put an itv news branded news update on aswell.
Well, not a bad review from the Daily Mail, to be fair. Instead of focusing on the many negative comments, their angle is about how viewers complained that Susanna was behind a desk, thus not showing her legs!
I haven't listened to any of it yet, but on Stephen Nolan's show on 5 Live last night, they discussed breakfast television, with Stephen Hewlett and Eamonn Holmes discussing, from 10 minutes in.
Obviously, it's a bit out-of-date now, given that GMB has since aired this morning, but it could be interesting nonetheless.
I'm pretty impressed with their first effort - with one exception - the Andi Peters bit. Have never rated him, but that aside, the wheel of fortune feature I think really cheapened what was a pretty good show on a pretty quiet news day
From the limited bits I've seen - which admittedly isnt much - I really like it.
Set, intro, TOTH are all lovely. Susanna and Ben both seem like suprisingly good choices, too. Felt an awful lot fresher than Breakfast.
And in terms of it being too speedy... You really can't (and shouldn't try to) please everyone. There was nothing about GMB that was faster paced than the Today programme (Radio 4, not NBC), which is hardly struggling for listeners. GMB has to provide something different to Breakfast and Sunrise, and I think if it doesnt lose vision it might just work.
The only things I'm not quite buying are the onscreen presentation (all a bit cluttered, and some elements feel randomly placed. Too many curves, too.), Laura still feels too detached for a morning weather forecaster to me (compared to the Carol Kirkwoods, Al Rokers, even the GMTV ones for that matter), and I'm not buying the four-presenter format quite yet. If Sean was on sport (and wrap in social media or whatever nonsense the US morning shows come up with next) and Charlotte was newsreader/ news anchor (in a similar role to Moira Stewart on Breakfast, or more to the point the Natalie Morales/Josh Elliot/ Amy Robach role on Today/GMA) but were, like on Today and Good Morning America, around for frequent discussion and chemistry, it would work better. I just don't follow the four-presenter setup. Especially when it makes Laura such an outsider, and it's clear Susanna and Ben are the more prominent co-hosts.