Chris took leave in late 2002 and finance contributor David Koch filled in for something like six weeks. At the end of the six weeks, ratings had improved and Kochie aligned closely with the new direction that the show was going to take in 2003. Koch was asked to stay on. Same thing in 2006. Chris took leave from Weekend Sunrise and Andrew O’Keefe (and Larry Emdur) filled in. Not long after, Andrew was hosting permanently.
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Only God knows where Sunrise would be today had Koch not permanently replaced Chris Reason at the end of 2002. Same case with Andrew O’Keefe on Weekend Sunrise in 2006.
Chris has however had the occasional appearance on either show in recent years - in 2015 he read the news while Sam and Nat co-hosted while the following year he deputized for Kochie for half a week.
And in 2018 he co-hosted alongside Monique while Basil Zempilas was in Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup.
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Isn’t she out in the country? Probably not the easiest place to get the infrastructure set up thats needed.
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I don’t really accept that with today’s technology.
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I mean, it’s not like the NBN has been rolled out everywhere yet, nor 5G signals everywhere. What do you expect with today’s technology?
Mate. I’m 15 mins out of Melbourne and don’t have NBN or 5G. It’s doable.
Regardless of the reasons as to why Sam isn’t hosting, I personally couldn’t care less. I always enjoy Nat hosting with Kochie and they’re a strong duo with lots of experience which is always a plus.
Plus the ratings have been up regardless, so viewers obviously don’t perceive them as a problem.
That’s just my take.
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I’m a Sam fan. Maybe that’s more the reasoning of my initial question.
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Understood.
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Of the two, I vastly prefer Natalie Barr (who let’s be honest, should’ve become the main female co-host when Mel stepped down in 2013) over Samantha Armytage…and suspect a majority of Media Spy members would agree with this analysis.
Having said that, neither Sunrise or Today in their current forms are exactly programs worth getting out of bed early for IMO.
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Which national television program are you hosting from home? 
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I stumbled upon this- a full edition of Sunrise from 2008 with Kylie and Larry, if anyone is interested. The last hour is on the same channel. It includes the short-lived local news windows too:
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I think it’s fair to ask why Sam doesn’t at least remote in, this is the biggest news event in decades and the primary presenter hasn’t been on air in a month’s time.
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I also remember they (Larry and Kylie) presented Weekend Sunrise together the day before the launch of The Morning Show in June 2007, because they said they “couldn’t wait” for the launch of their own show.
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Audience numbers were up on Tuesday after Easter Monday’s drop, though down week-on-week. Sunrise was ahead of News Breakfast by 85,000 and ahead of Today by 100,000.
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I miss the energy that they had back then. Even the opener was more playful and fun…
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Why was Larry and Kylie hosting? Is that just how the covered the downtime of the normal team back then?
That set back then was a nice set up, until they moved the desk into the performance area to make it into a multipurpose set due to The Morning Show
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Great find, what a flashback! Especially the local news and weather tracker aspect
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I don’t remember that at all. I know they did interviews etc from the performance area but I haven’t seen the desk there. Unless you mean the bookshelf set? Though, to be honest, my memory of this era is a little blurred.
It was only the first week of the year though and Kylie and Larry are a pairing that were known to have good chemistry. You can tell from the video that Larry hadn’t done too many weekday shows before. Matt White usually filled in for Koch. And, now that I think about it, I don’t recall anyone other than Nat or Kylie (and Lisa Wilkinson) filling in for Mel on Sunrise, under Boland. I don’t think Sam started filling in until they were preparing her to take over permanently. So Kylie was very familiar to the audience then. It would probably be equivalent to Monique and Basil hosting today.
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