[quote=“pelican, post:587, topic:69”]
I know that it’s breakfast TV and thus supposed to be light and fluffy, but come on. The woman was there to talk about refugees, not some dross entertainment shit. Even worse was the fact that Sunrise agreed to ask questions regarding Davis’ UNHCR work, and then ignored that.
[/quote] I am a little undecided on this issue. Admittedly, I didn’t watch any of the interview nor the skit and I don’t want to but from the clips I have seen it all just seems like harmless fun. Just after 9.00 this morning, the Sunrise team apologised, I thought it was somewhat sincere. I know Davis said she wanted to talk about the UNHCR work only, but to be fair it is breakfast television. The segment aired in the latter of the show, designed for lighter topics, and as @JBar stated the original interview was conducted for 9 minutes, a large proportion of a breakfast show and the skit only running for about 5. I can understand why Davis is upset but I really don’t think it is Samantha Armytage’s, David Koch, Natalie Barr or Edwina Bartholomew’s fault what so ever. It is just another Samantha Armytage publicity scandal.
[quote=“Jeffmister, post:601, topic:69”]
Firstly, he plays favourites to the detriment of just about everything else which is exactly how you don’t run a show. You see this with how he’s made Armytage be the ‘focal point’ of the show (to be clear I’m not criticizing her) compared to say the shunting of Nelson Aspen and segments Kochie presents (eg; Joke of the Day and ‘Kochie’s Angels’).
[/quote] I do agree, and why Sam was selected to replace Mel was due to Pell and Armytage’s close relationship. Kochie better watch out otherwise his finance reports will be next! Although I was starting to get tired of ‘mumsy’ Mel in the end, I actually miss what she brought to Sunrise. [quote=“eddel, post:602, topic:69, full:true”]
And the biggest problem is that once you’ve lost viewers it takes a very long time to win them back.
[/quote] And the best example is TODAY. It has taken them 13 years and maybe this year Sunrise won’t be number #1.[quote=“RegionalTV, post:600, topic:69”]
Sunrise has gone severely downhill since she got put in and ratings are beginning to reflect that
[/quote] To be far to Sam, there were times in late 2013 that Sunrise had pushed TODAY back from nibbling at their toes and were sitting at a comfortable lead.
If Davis only wanted to be interviewed about her UNHCR work, you either agree to that or can the thing entirely. It’s not a hard-hitting interview where you spring things on guests (like a question for a politician they weren’t expecting etc), it’s a light entertainment show that is interrupted occasionally by newsbreaks. To put the interviewee in an awkward spot like that is entirely unfair. A major stuff-up by the segment producer/EP. Sunrise may now find their reputation has taken a hit in terms of booking overseas acts.
Not sure I subscribe to the switch on the next morning theory. I have brought it up before - for example I thought that following the mega ratings for Molly, that Sunrise should have had a big win on Monday but the opposite happened.
The main consideration regarding big prime time numbers for Seven is that they should be getting an advantage by having more eyeballs on the promos, but that doesn’t seem to be working either.
So Kristin Davis gets an apology for the offensive conduct of the buffoons who host this show. You have to laugh when you consider viewers, for years, have been expected to take these “journos” seriously as credible news people when they constantly act like fools. Where’s our freaking apology?
I had a feeling the ratings would turn to shit the minute Pell had to veer substantially from the template Adam Boland put in place all those years ago. He has suddenly had to stop riding on Boland’s coat tails and has been forced by McPherson to come up with his own initiatives in an effort to freshen things up. He must feel like the walls are crumbling around him since the old Boland recipe was thrown out the window. Given McPherson’s disdain for “boy wonder”, I don’t expect he’ll still be at Seven by the end of the year. While Boland can be considered responsible for the dumbing down of breakfast television in this country, at least he took a consultative approach and valued the opinions of the morons who watch this tripe day in and day out.
One week does not make anything in the long term. Yet. I mean lets talk in July.
I have found this week quite interesting from a human point of view. I mean on the space of 3 days you would think Sunrise was responsible for draining refugee children on an island in the pacific. Let’s get some perspective people.
I did think the whole reporting of this incident was a beat up - as per usual. Until I actually watched the segment. It was very awkward and Kristin was clearly uncomfortable.
Why would this have not been vetoed by her people first?
[quote=“TV.Cynic, post:612, topic:69”]
Not sure I subscribe to the switch on the next morning theory. I have brought it up before - for example I thought that following the mega ratings for Molly, that Sunrise should have had a big win on Monday but the opposite happened.
[/quote] Adam Boland actually also supported the evening viewing and morning viewing correlation, as do I. For surfers, what they watch last at night will be the same channel they see in the morning. However in this circumstance MKR, Molly have had really strong ratings and Nine AGT is doing appallingly but the opposite is happening in the AM.[quote=“NewsWeary, post:615, topic:69”]
While Boland can be considered responsible for the dumbing down of breakfast television in this country
[/quote] But it turned out 13 years ago that what Boland did was what Australia wanted. Also the interesting thing is TODAY hasn’t really changed its format in the last 5-6 years and it has proven to be a stability about the show
For better or worse, most viewers prefer waking up with personality-driven breakfast shows rather than mostly news-based breakfast shows. This applies to both TV and radio, of course…
You can pretty clearly see that Kochie and Sam really are just getting through the UNHCR questions though; they even mention Sex & The City in the first minute, say how excited they are, and then sort of begrudgingly move onto the refugee questions. If I were passionate about a particular topic and were doing the interview on the premise of devoting it to that cause, I’d be pretty offended if the hosts showed a greater interest in a role which was completed over a decade ago.
And the whole reenacting a scene from the show was kinda lame. They put in a greater effort to that then showing how important her advocacy work has been. Why didn’t they do something else (say a 5 minute piece with an interview with those who she’s helped in Africa)? It sounds like they only got her interviewed because a few in the office were fans of her acting career.
Sam and Pell are the problem, the former in a big way. And as someone so beautifully put it above, her replacement is sitting directly beside her now. Interesting to see what the ratings for today are.
I used to really love Sam as a newsreader and even as WS host -she was good with AOK- but she grates on me some days and makes me cringe. And I’m a Sunrise fan. Can’t see me switching channels though. Lisa and Karl are even more annoying and cringeworthy, and Today’s content appears no better than Sunrise. Hate Today’s graphics.
I’m sure she expects to be asked SITC questions every time she’s interviewed and grins and bears it. But the skit was cringeworthy from go to woe and Davis made it blatantly obvious she wasn’t impressed. Armytage’s response, “You’re not the one sitting here in an ugly wig” just added fuel to the fire. Armytage still couldn’t acknowledge the skit perhaps went too far when questioned yesterday afternoon, so it’s hardly surprising Davis asked for her to be canned from the event. The on air apology this morning was a crock. At least pretend to be sincere.
I don’t believe the apology was sincere, at least not from all. David Koch quickly and discreetly added this line at 7.13am supposedly in reference to the graphics error: “It’s a joke. At least some people have a sense of humor. We do. We try to. More on that later.”, which was followed by an unnecessary obnoxious laugh from the muppet to the left of him.
The faux outrage media have blown this out of proportion. OK it was an ill conceived awkward and bad skit but that’s all it was. The Sam bashing that has occurred following this has been downright nasty and unwarranted.
I don’t see why there is all the blame on Sam… It wasn’t just her, they all were in on it just for a bit of fun (the skit). The black-listing from the lunch, and all the insults from her actions and from wearing the wig, are as close to media bullying…
Commercial television has really gone downhill. How stupid to have a refugee ambassador as a guest and then act out a skit of an old tv show instead of engaging in meaningful discussions about refugees. No such thing as informative discussions anymore on Sunrise or other commercial breakfast shows for that matter.
Switching over to ABCNews24 seems logical these days.
