News Breakfast

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Tuesday (09.04.2024) - Wednesday (10.04.2024): Catherine Murphy is co-hosting with Lisa.

Charles Brice is presenting sport. He’s in studio, so hopefully doing a longer stint.

Thursday (11.04.2024): Bridget Brennan is co-hosting with Lisa. Emma Rebellato on news and Charles Brice doing sport.

Friday (12.04.2024): Catherine Murphy co-hosting with Bridget today. Charles Brice on sport.

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Charles is now apart of the News Breakfast team in Melbourne. He will be presenting and producing for the next year.

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He’s come from Adelaide yeah?

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Yep was the Adelaide reporter. Wonder if they will get another reporter in Adelaide now that he is in Melbourne.

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Has he been working on his news voice? Haven’t watched in a while now but I always remember him as not being very polished.

Possibly. I think he was apart of the digital team in Adelaide so that may be why he was not as polished. TBH haven’t noticed myself.

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He’s been the Adelaide reporter for quite a long time now. He’s still not very polished.

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He’s not very good, or experienced, but no surprised he’s been brought into the revolving door of studio talent on News Breakfast.

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Monday (15.04.2024): Bridget Brennan is co-hosting with Lisa. Emma Rebellato on news and Charles Brice presenting sport.

Tuesday (16.04.2024): Catherine Murphy is co-hosting with Lisa, even though Emma Rebellato is doing news. Charles Brice on sport.

Wednesday (17.04.2024):
Emma Rebellato is live in Wakeley, NSW, following Monday night’s terrorist attack. Catherine Murphy is co-hosting with Lisa in studio.

Charles Brice is still doing sport and Stephanie Ferrier is presenting the weather this morning.

Thursday (18.04.2024): Emma Rebellato live from Bondi Junction Westfield ahead of its reopening. Bridget Brennan co-hosting with Lisa in studio. Charles Brice on sport.

Friday (19.04.2024): Catherine Murphy is co-hosting with Bridget. Emma Rebellato on news and Charles Brice doing sport.

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You really have to laugh. God knows what management and the EP are thinking. What made NB successful and really watchable in the VT era was the stability and chemistry of the team (yes yes not to everyone’s liking). Now it’s a laundry list of presenters with zero profile. Even the summer fill-ins during the VT era had more profile and were more routine - Bevvo, Hamish McD, Ali Moore,Tamara, etc.

The show needs a broom. The status quo with the team is not working, find people who want to do NB and only NB and stop wrecking the format. Hard news, smart analysis and talk - that’s all it needs to be. Going lowbrow will not bring back their audience.

Give Michael some kind of roaming presenter and analysis role across the ABC. They really lack someone with real experience for this kind of thing since Phil Lasker left. Lisa was always better at straight news reading, give her the evening shift on the news channel.

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Spot on! I know it’s very ABC to let every schmo get a go, but the whole thing, like the wider news output, has just become this weird holding place where it seems nobody gets any guidance.

Yep, so the team never develops any chemistry and it looks like (because it probably is) everyone for themself. It’s just bad tv and news output.

Totally agree! The program has become stale and continuous rotation of very average presenters does nothing to alleviate this decay. Despite what some people think, I believe that presenters do matter … and particularly their ability to develop a working chemistry as a team. Lets face it, Virginia’s charisma and intelligence virtually carried this program and it has never been the same since she left … Lisa Millar was a very poor choice to replace her.

Unfortunately the program is produced in Melbourne, so there is an immediate restriction on the pool of ABC talent. A broom may be necessary, but it would appear that the Melbourne cupboard is somewhat bare!

A radical solution (shock, horror!) would be to swap the production of News Breakfast and Weekend Breakfast between Melbourne and Sydney, thus opening up the ABC options!

It’s strange that the ABC is not putting a greater effort into rectifying this situation … they must know it’s not working? Particularly as they seem to be putting things right with the News Channel recently … by using just two of their very best presenters for Morning and Afternoon, and even backing it up with quality fill-ins (James Glenday replacing Kathryn Robinson during NSW school holidays this week). The News Channel is suddenly looking much more appealing!

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Last summer they used their pool of regular fill-ins. As per the commercial breakfast shows, familiarity is what the audience wants (yes I know consistency too).

Nobody wants the weekday show to be anything like weekends.

First thing, they need to rein in the leave entitlements or the way they approve leave for presenters.

Stop letting their presenters go on leave at the same time or one after another. There’s a time for taking leave and on this program it’s like Michael and Lisa are both off for like 6 months of the year with the way they keep having time off. Tony Armstrong too. They need to have them commit and say you have to be on air for at least 10 months of the year and during certain times. Otherwise we just get this hodge podge that no one recognizes.

Surely if they’ve got other programs to do they could do it in conjunction with their News Breakfast duties rather than taking months off to do it, especially in the case of Lisa and Tony.

Despite all of the above, that I think is valid, I’ve noticed that News Breakfast’s ratings have been edging up in the last few weeks. Seems to be at the expense of Sunrise mainly IMO. Reasons could include time of year, DST, disenchantment with commercials.

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Cant wait for the DM article ‘Media fans call for revamp of ‘stale’ ABC breakfast show’…

Hello Mr DailyMail reader :stuck_out_tongue:

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Largely on point, except for the fact NB’s base in Melbourne is its biggest strength. Sunrise, Today and a lot of the ABC news output is so captured by NSW issues and life they don’t have a clue what’s going on in the other states so weak NSW stories are pushed over really important things happening elsewhere in the country. Not to mention anyone with half a brain would move town if they were offered a presenter role.

Lisa was indeed a very poor choice to replace VT and the show has never recovered. Everyone could see it except for ABC management.

I wonder if the NB hours would suit Tamara better than 7pm. She has a genuine warmth that would go well on the show but she would need to commit to working a full year…If only Narelda Jacobs would see sense and join the ABC…

As for the blokes, Ben Knight was always a good performer. Steve Cannane? Bring back Paul Kennedy?