Connect with us

ATV Today

ATV Reports: Viewers guide to ‘Saving’ Daybreak

ATV Reports: Viewers guide to ‘Saving’ Daybreak

It’s early days of course for ITV’s new breakfast show Daybreak. However the backlash from GMTV viewers has been fierce. We’ve taken onboard their views and present a thumbnail guide to putting things right.

First off, GMTV may have been a damaged brand, but 17 years of television history so casually thrown away seems to have disappointed many, so welcome gmtv. Bring back the brand but just slightly tweak its look is what many readers suggested to start with. Lowercase ‘gmtv’ isn’t a radical change, but surely its enough for ITV to show difference? And of course the ITV logo has been in lowercase since 1998.

It is never wise in television to alienate your long-term audience. ITV has seemingly been obsessed with chasing youth, advertisers think if you catch them young they stick with a brand. Youth change alliance more than their underwear, so it’s a pointless exercise. The older audience who have more disposable money are neglected and overlooked foolishly by television. So content to appeal to all not just youngsters and hippy parents.

It appears Adrian and Christine are also on the hit list. It was noted here on ATV Today many months ago by readers that The One Show works because it’s a decent alternative to Emmerdale – not because of who presents it, although if current One Show ratings are to be believed – find that perfect combination and ratings can rise – as they have done since Chiles and Bleakley quit. So bring back Andrew Castle, Emma Crosby and the ever popular Kate Garraway.

The set looks like a Premier Inn – apparently – and not warm, welcoming or cosy. Although the new ‘real window’ view seems to have gone down well, so lets restore some colour with the red sofa, and a nice selection of potted plants. It should have been learned from Good Morning on BBC One that cold colours do a show no good. When it went from the cosy yellow and orange set to a cold blue and green its days were numbered, even host Anne Diamond partly blamed the bland and bleak looking set for a ratings decline.

Topless Weather, if all else fails resort to drastic measures. We all know bare flesh brings in viewers. This is more likely to happen at Channel Five however. Daybreak’s new weather girl and newsreader haven’t gone down well with viewers.

Last resort – bring in the saviour of TV-am. If Greg Dyke isn’t available then maybe his on-screen saviour from Good Morning Britain may just do – Roland Rat. Yeh rat-fans. When the first breakfast channel on ITV was failing back in the early 1980s Dyke ditched the upmarket, ditched the trendy and opted for wide appeal gimmicks and populist programming.

Daybreak is very much trying for that audience TV-am sought but couldn’t bring to ITV – so maybe go back to the tried and tested populist that both TV-am and GMTV mastered for years.

Pictured Top: ITV’s new Daybreak, already nicknamed Daybore. Pictured Bottom: The glory days of GMTV with Lorraine and Eammon. Middle Photo: Viewer idea of what a restored gmtv could look like.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

More in

Advertisement

Trending

Advertisement
To Top