Didn’t he fill in for Nat during her pregnancies and when Nat replaced Mel during her pregnancy?
Pretty sure Beretts began when they moved to Martin Place. I can remember him standing in front of a plasma while the others sat in arm chairs.
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It was 2004 around the time Matt White moved from 10 and Sports Tonight to 7 for Sydney sport.
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I also vividly recall this!? more than anything else from that sunrise era.
Sunrise again third in Melbourne and Brisbane yesterday.
They need to launch local news inserts into both cities asap. Currently people in Melbourne and Brisbane are over hearing about the Sydney outbreak. Sunrise is a very Sydney centric production at the moment due to the Sydney Lockdown.
My advise would be to hire a team of 5 in each city and work on producing live local news updates from 7.30am /8.30am /9.30am /10.30am - along with launching local Morning news at 11.30am in both Melbourne and Brisbane.
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They could even get their Sunrise reporters to do their local news inserts and other reporters to cover their position. They’ve got to do something if they don’t want Today to overtake them.
Oh yeah and also if they can report on all states equally rather than biased towards NSW then they will benefit too. No one in Victoria and Queensland gives two rats about NSW news infiltrating the show everyday.
No, they need to add resources and build a morning team in both cities.
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I don’t think we’re at the stage of local news inserts yet (apart from Perth for obvious reasons with the time difference). I’m in Melbourne, but I also want to hear about what’s happening in Sydney and Brisbane.
And why go make a major format change when the graphics have only just been changed?
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You would still get national news throughout the program and at the top of the hour. But with the addition of a local news insert (with a local presenter) for both Melbourne and Brisbane (5 mins) incorporated into the program. The same team would also produce a local Morning News bulletin at 11.30am.
I think that is the exact opposite thing they should do. Double down in the format you know resonates with viewers and has seen them consistently number 1 and don’t change things up and give viewers the urge to channel surf. If in a few months things don’t stabilise or change, then consider further changes but since Today is winning those markets without local inserts, the issue is a broader one.
Sunrise has seen a little decline perhaps, but today’s audience has seen the increase which had led to the closer results. Good competition for the market.
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There is a reason for this … they have gone really hard against the ALP states, and very pro Coalition and NSW agenda re ‘opening up’.
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I’ve noticed that Kochie and Nat have started each show with the headlines before passing it on to Eddy/Monique/Angie for the rest of the day’s news (ala back in the 2016 relaunch). They need to get back to the basics.
Thank goodness they don’t have the muppets in Latham and Kennett appearing on the show these days but still their reporting can be substantially improved if they get rid of their Sydney/LNP/Gladys focus.
And that is the biggest problem. Today’s been giving everyone equal attention and reporting from a balanced POV. On Sunrise Queensland and Victoria are portrayed as apocalyptic whilst NSW is portrayed as Paradise.
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At the end of the day, what do you do? The show has become too Sydney focused ?
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Agreed. It always has been, but it’s worse since the Sydney outbreak. Which I totally get is justified to a degree, but it is also a National program.
Others will disagree with me but if I was them I’d try it for a couple of weeks maybe in the 7:30 block. Have a local news insert around then and see how it resonates. If it goes well then slowly expand it. Maybe local news on the half hour and national news on the hour
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They could also try a local-specific segment like Today does with Perth these days.
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We are also only a few weeks off Queensland again getting a 1 hour time delay feed thanks to DST.
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Who would you get to present the local updates?
Blake Johnson?
I think anyone out of the newsroom. Great way to build new presenting talent in the ranks.
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Agree… they need to backtrack to see what’s happened since the Olympics. Four consecutive weeks where the gap is sub 40k (and is trending downwards, not recovering). Another week or two of such close competition and, for the yearly average, it cancels out the impact of the dominance they had over the Olympics.
Queensland could have Samantha Heathwood, Joel Dry, Marlina Whop, Amanda Abate and Steve Titmus. Take your pick.
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Personally I think they need to cover national news, not just news from Sydney, things happen in other states that’s never reported, perhaps mix things up by not repeating the same news stories all the time. Another peeve of mine is once something has been breaking news how many more times during the program can it be breaking news.
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