Ten announces shake up for Wake Up, denies it is losing its differentiation

Wake UpWake Up is to change its format with news presenter Nuala Hafner to leave her Melbourne news desk to join Natarsha Belling and James Mathison in the Manly studio.

The move is another attempt by new executive producer Steve Wood to revive Ten’s struggling breakfast program, which according to Fusion Strategy has averaged just 34,000 viewers in the official survey year to date.

It is another shift away the format established by former EP Adam Boland, who quit in January for health reasons, after the network quietly scrapped local news tailored to every state earler this year, with a spokesman telling Mumbrella: “it was not resonating with viewers”.

The network had sought to differentiate Wake Up from rivals Sunrise on Seven and Today on Nine based not only on its Manly beachside studio setting, but with its local news offering and Hafner being based in a studio overlooking Melbourne’s Federation Square, avoiding making it solely Sydney-centric.

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