1/11/2009 7TWO launches with the “It’s Time” song. It televises mostly British programs as well as re-runs of old shows such as “Heartbeat”. From memory it also aired an old series of “The Mole” later on.
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Was based on a famous campaign song by a former Labor PM
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On this day, 10 years ago, Wake Up and Studio 10 on Channel 10 first aired:
Credit: anthony78977
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4/11/2002 Rod Young joins Kay McGrath as co-presenter on 7NEWS Brisbane. It takes them five years to overtake their rivals at QTQ, their cause helped by poaching John Schluter and Sharyn Ghidella from Channel Nine.
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Ten tried so hard with Wake Up. Even with Sunrise’s Adam Boland at the helm.
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Unfortunately, there was a lot a problems with Wake Up. It was an overly expensive production that weighed down the networks news department. A lot of people lost their jobs 6 months later.
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And then, Ten only had one main news bulletin during the day - the flagship 5:00pm bulletin. A massive downturn from its so-called “News Revolution” which they spent a lot on in 2011.
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Yep… and it’s taken them 10 years to reintroduce a midday bulletin and next year a late night bulletin.
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Not to mention they also merged the Melbourne and Adelaide bulletins into one, as well as Brisbane’s into Sydney’s, leaving just Perth’s as a standalone local bulletin. And even then, production was shifted to Pyrmont, with all this coming at the height of the COVID pandemic.
These changes are slowly being reverted, as seen this year with Adelaide and Melbourne returning to standalone bulletins, and Perth’s bulletin being returned to Subiaco permanently.
I daresay the Sydney/Brisbane composite bulletin will remain indefinitely until ratings and resources improve in the northern capital, which I cannot see happening within the next twelve months at least.
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Why did they launch in November?
I believe it was to help grow the show over the summer break when the rival shows were on fill in staff/crew etc.
Unfortunately, the damage was done from day one. Most people who sampled the show retuned quickly to other three the 2nd / 3rd day.
There was a lot of problems with the lack of news, presenters, content and it being too Sydney focused. I remember reading it received 0s in both Melbourne and Adelaide one morning.
It was an expensive failure that lead to the Early News, Morning News and Late News being axed. Along with many news staff cuts in all newsrooms.
I believe that glass wall behind the presenters cost about a million dollars to build into the complex.
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Not to mention the cabling from pyrmont to manly to allow the show to be controlled from the studio. Add to that Boland having some mental health issue and it seems it was doomed from the start.
The strategy to build news from breakfast to bedtime was sound but poorly executed and poorly promoted. It was a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. This was all under McLennan as CEO. He had some good ideas and got the BBL and winter games at the time. There was more he was I’m sure going to do but then ofc Lachlan and others continued to meddle and that led to the collapse a few years later.
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ACA’s report on the Breakfast TV Battleground.
YouTube: Media and Transport Channel
And their report on Wake Up’s cancellation.
YouTube: South Coast TV
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Ten were always going to find it tough cracking the breakfast TV market against the more-established Sunrise and Today on Seven and Nine respectively.
Therefore it was no surprise that Breakfast and Wake Up did not last long. The former churned through so much format changes including moving out to the newsroom area and having a veteran in Ron Wilson reading the news, all to no avail.
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It was a very dark time for Network Ten.
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Especially after it relinquished the AFL broadcasting rights at the end of 2011, which coincided with the axing of the long-running Late News which will be brought back next year.
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Love the end comment about News Breakfast… little did ACA know it would fight for second position with The Today Show by 2020.
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But at the end of the day they were poorly implemented. Both were expensive flops with the wrong people at the helm.
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I also remember “Breakfast” was rushed onto air in the wake of a potential political spill involving then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard in 2012. Instead of launching on Monday, February 27 as planned, it premiered on Thursday, February 23 - and I think it’s fair to say the show was doomed from the get-go.
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It was a disaster from the start and being unable to compete with Sunrise and News breakfast
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