Good Morning Britain - 2015 Refresh/Tweaks

Funny you say this as part of a school project I was working on we spoke to some people at sitting duck and one of the guys from there told me that the Lorraine refresh was supposed to be a lighter version of the GMB theme but ITV rejected the pitch , I believe that is the theme launched today.

But the softer and lighter show does not work! Isn't this the reason why there have been so many re-launches of previous shows and then the introduction of a more news-led show i.e. GMB?!

It is actually quite farcical - Ben and Susanna standing up to start the show - I remember them trying this with Adrian and Christine, Kate and Dan, Aled and Lorraine. Then when "standing up at the start of the show" doesn't bring them in excess of 1 million viewers (because that's clearly what they think will), they get the Presenters to sit down again, then a week later stand up again but in a different part of the studio.

As always, I believe the words 'we're in this for the long run' were uttered by ITV when GMB began, and not even a year on they've shown they're not. I'm genuinely quite shocked by the revamp, as if anything it was just ITV embracing that they always revert to GMTV by making it more like GMTV. The desk is awful - I've never liked wooden news desks when trying to be modern, as often they look and out of place. This one certainly does, with it also being much smaller. The music isn't great either - it's bearable but the previous music was strong and sounded news-y, whilst this one sounds lightweight. The voiceover is also awful - much slower for no reason and despite the previous one not being full of gravitas it was a good voiceover.

No no no.

Well yes to the proper close, but otherwise no.

EDIT: I've flipped through a few bits on UTV Player and there do appear to be some format improvements, despite the actual look of the programme falling down. In the 6am hour after the regional news they ploughed on with the next story, rather than 'welcome back, coming up, and then, plus, also' etc. Weather is back at the half hour and top of the hour, so differs from Breakfast once more - a pretty incidental change but with the first 15 mins providing more of a round-up of the day's news it seems odd to cut it out.

I was shocked to see the changes that they had made this morning. It does look as if GMB are heading back towards the Daybreak era, which of course is not going to help them! The music too high pitched and the instrumentation does not work for 6am in the morning, especially as it has changed the tone of the programme, steering away from a news-based show. However, I did like there only being three presenters at the desk, I think it works so much better. Why GMTV worked well, may not have been down to the format, but was due to the warmth that you got from the presenters and the relationship you had by having two, rather than four, that you all go to a bit for.

This is the second relaunch/revamp that Ben Shephard has been the face of in the past six years (GMTV). 18 months after that, it was announced it was going! So who knows what will happen this time!

Just been thinking and I really struggle to see how they'll use this theme with a serious story.

Have to say that whilst everyone is criticising these changes, people have been going on about changing the london backdrop, which they have and it looks much better!

I think the new desk and riser look awful, and the orange floor beneath makes it look even worse!

There is a need for them to change the nature of the programme, seeing as they weren't getting the viewers they needed, they really need a new promotion strategy, because there are pleanty of people who are up listening to the radio or watching alternatives- its not just breakfast that have viewers GMB should be after!

I really dislike the new VO, lets hope they change it soon.

Nothing special.

I've read through all the comments posted in this thread and I'm quite frankly surprised at the overreaction to today's refresh; but TV Forum thrives on overreaction I suppose.

The new music is perfectly fine and is well suited to a morning breakfast show; warmer and considerably more melodic than its predecessor. It is engaging and strikes the right tone at 6:00am. Perhaps, it could come do a note or two, but overall no major faults.

The new desk gets rid of the issue that they had, whereby three presenters were awkwardedly skewed towards the left of a very large desk.

The sofa area feels a lot better with the additional set pieces. Content wise, I was impressed to see more news throughout the morning and generally less lighter fare. If maintained and increased, GMB could provide perfect election viewing in the months ahead.

Much of the overreaction stems from a desire from must forum members to have a hard news programme in the morning; but this never what GMB will be, so kindly members - get over it! It will forever try to strike the balance between news and lighter fare, as GMTV and Daybreak both did. It will not always succeed, but any belief that it needs to go in favour of one over the other is misguided.

It is not what the audience wants. It wants intelligent programming with warmth in the morning and whilst GMB is not entirely there yet, today's refresh proves that it is moving in a good direction.

Which bit did you make?

None, just wrote it down in the wrong way.

And chose a really misleading thumbnail?