Ten to axe Breakfast
Ten is set to axe its ailing morning show Breakfast along with Ten Morning News at the end of this month.
Ten’s original Breakfast lineup
In a statement it said: “It is proposed that Breakfast and Ten Morning News will cease production on November 30. Breakfast television still represents an opportunity for Ten and we will return to the breakfast TV market at some point next year.”
Breakfast launched in February this year. But it failed to dent the ratings of market leader Sunrise on Seven or its close rival Today on Nine. While Sunrise and Seven generally rate an average of above 300,000 viewers, Breakfast never even came close to 100,000. On Thursday of last week, Sunrise rated 370,000, Today 345,000 and Breakfast just 47,000.
The original lineup consisted of controversial Kiwi Paul Henry, Kathryn Robinson, Andrew Rochford and weather presenter Magdalena Roze. Rochford left the show in June while launch EP Majella Wiemers departed in July.
In August the show was shortened to finish at 8.30am. At the same time ten also axed The Circle.
The decision to drop Breakfast is a reversal of Ten’s position during last month’s 2013 preview when it said that it remained committed to Breakfast.
Media analyst Steve Allen of Fusion Strategy told Mumbrella the cancellation will have little impact on the market.
Allen said: “It doesn’t mean a lot. It wasn’t rating or trending.
“When you put a show to air, everything has to be right from day one. If they put to air at the beginning what they’re putting to air now it may have been different.
“They’ll be asking, ‘how can we get a better revenue in that time slot?’ But they’ll have to find a cheaper way of doing it.”
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About time. Hopefully that offensive Paul Henry character goes away for good now.
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Nine are thinking about bringing Ray Martin back on ACA… wonder if Ten bring back Agro and Cartoon Connection!!
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Ten’s programming is a dogs breakfast.
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Good news, using a host that insults viewers, guests and experts a like is not a great policy especially when trying to win over an audience first thing in the morning.
But the bland Mel and Kochie and irritating Stefanovic aren’t particularly great either.
10 need an edge, but charisma would be useful in the mix!
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Thank God. Hope that Paul Henry is sent back home. I think he is vile.
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YAY!!! Or just axe Paul Henry, I’m sure ratings will jump…
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I love Paul Henry. He tells it as it is! I believe Channel Ten Morning News format was different to 9 and 7 which made it a breath of fresh air.
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What a shame. It is a sad sign of the times that local productions are suffering in the current economic climate. I for one – enjoyed Paul Henry’s humour – it does grow on you.
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This is a shame – actually Paul Henry is pretty funny and is surprisingly, a very smart guy, and Kathryn Robinson – a good foil. What hasn’t happened – is that TEN haven’t got people to trial the show!. Simple marketing. Maybe they should axe the marketing team instead. It was set up to fail. Shame – and smells of panic people who don’t know what they’re doing.
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Mission Impossible.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to establish a morning television show that will display unique content whilst complying with the usual format. The show will prove innovative, sexy, funny and entertaining, whilst maintaining a news, current affairs, weather and community service ethic.
The overarching requirement, in fact, the overarching demand, is that the show, whilst maintaining all the aforementioned, must in a very short space of time (time not specified) significantly smash the ratings hold, enjoyed by that “sunrise thing” and any other morning show that might happen along.
Should you fail, or be caught out trying too hard, we will deny all knowledge of this brief….Should you be successful, we will take all the credit.
This offer will self destruct in 10 seconds.
Mission Possible.
Work together to produce a morning and news show of excellence and let it grow over a mid to long term, with the view to rating near the highest and perhaps beyond it to take the lead.
The intelligent approach to change is to take your audience down a pathway that leads to it; not by trying to drop a bomb on the perceived opposition.
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Seriously disappointing – I think Paul Henry is brilliant – funny, intelligent and willing to say it how it is, even at the risk of offending, but usually only if you don’t understand his dry wit. Sadly will now have to go back to the warm fuzzy & fluffy Today Show … yawn …
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Ten might as well just close shop.It is axing all local programs. What does it have let? Imports?Of course Breakfast is not going to get the numbers that Sunrise and Today have got.
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Send Paul Henry home!! Worst idea ever to hire him, I hope the person responsible for hiring him got the boot.
Yes, I second bring back Agro’s Cartoon Connection.
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Like, who caes? It’s nothing telly anyway. And, who the hell puts the box on first thing? If you can’t talk your partner into a morning glory, well you aren’t trying hard enough.
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Ten had an opportunity to do something completely different from 9 and 7. I believe a breakfast TV format they is more like breakfast FM radio would be brilliant, lots of celeb interviews, live music, gossip, regular news, quirky real life stories – hell – why not do horoscopes as well! It’s what half the country listens to in the morning on their radio – there is obviously a taste for it. Weave is some music videos and hey presto – you have an interesting and different show.
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Very disappointing news! Just recently switched from another network and we found Breakfast 10 to be a breath of fresh air. Much too early to axe the program IMO.
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Oh dear, where will Ten insert its infomercials now? ACMA might have something to say if Ten brings back the cartoons complete with presenters extolling the virtues of floor cleaners.
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Thank God !
Now let us remember who made this audacious appointment with a $1 million dollar contract just for Henry.
I would love to see the Profit & Loss on this experiment.
Another failure Ten – YTT, Lara Bingle, The Shire, Everybody Dance Now – Breakfast !!
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Must confess, after being disallusioned by the same dreary day in day out format of TODAY watched Channel 10’s breakfast show – but just didn’t relate to the male person – too early in the morning for dry wit – breaky shows need to be bright and happy, music, interviews – we don’t actually watch them – more listen to them – and Channel 7 has never grabbed me since the 50’s.
10 have some awful home brewed shows – Andrew Bolt is the only home show worth watching –
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If only breakfast TV was generally as funny as the Micallef segment I’m sure more viewers would watch!
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Does the axing come with a one-way ticket for Paul Henry?
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I never watched it but have an opinion anyway
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I predict a new show: Jamie Oliver’s 15 minute breakfast.
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Drew, you have hit the nail on the head. Take an FM breakfast radio format and deliver it for a TV audience (maybe with a splash of TENs The Project thrown in).
Music videos, news updates, the traffic and weather, a feedback line, competitions, interviews and for something different, a straight entertainment reporter rather than a fabulous US import…and you might have something different that will appeal to the Under 40s.
TEN have had a bit of talent that could deliver a format like this in James Matheson, Yumi Stynes, Dylan Lewis, Fitzy, Andrew G, Fuzzy Agostina, hell even Mrs Murdoch or the Good News Week crew.
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Paul Henry and my brother have a lot in common – they are both, intelligent, funny, big-mouthed and occasionally very annoying. But I’ll be sad to see Henry and Robinson go – they were starting to have some fun together and loosen up a bit. I’d rather poke my eyes out than watch Nine or Seven, so I guess there’ll be no breakfast news for me.
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What a shame the guy with the biggest pay packet on the show was the one who caused its demise. Henry is absolutely unwatchable. The rest of the program was great however, and I feel for all the awesome people losing their jobs.
Shock jocks belong on the radio where we can’t see them Hint: Sunrise re Jones – ugh!
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Very over Due Mercy Killing!!
Surely for Two Million they could persuade Micallef to do Breakfast. I’m sure an active brain like his with help from a bit part supporting cast off the Gen game could get closer to Kochie and the Stef!!
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Poorly executed strategy – the talent selection and format being the biggest issue. Agree with many other comments here. It’s a shame as I feel that Katheryn is talented and has the makings of a great presenter. Will not miss the ‘tight and short’ fashion sense of Mag though – awesome talent, very distracting dress sense! They really did not get the balance of substance and entertainment right..
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I have a question, if Paul Henry signed a contract with the network, does it end when the show ends? Or does he get paid until the contracts conclusion?
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Can someone please get new people to do the nine breakfast show, the current breakfast team are really boring – it is always time to a switch over to Sunrise or the ABC….The Ten breakfast show was really well past its due date to end .
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The 6AM Project would of worked.. Keep all the same presenters, keep Paul Henry as Steven Price-esque member of team.. Would of worked better.. tough sell going against 9 and 7 no matter who you have running the show..
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I actually like it. Unlike Sunrise and Today it was not repetitive. If you watch Today they sometimes have the same segment 3 times in their entire show. Tens problem l feel was the choice of host and intro music was dreadful. Sounded uninviting
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More people have commented on the demise of Breakfast than actually watched it.
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Just look at all the response this news has generated. And the letters in the Melbourne Herald Sun on Monday 12/11/12 that prompted the sudden axing of Breakfast. Wasnt it just renewed last week. Luke Dennehy on Sunday Herald Sun calling for the axing. Has that young boy even watched the show? People who havent watched the show shouldn’t comment. Has anyone watched the Adelaide segments where they are looking for traffic and other things- they are hilarious. The same people who complain about Kochie surprisingly do not embrace a shift and a new show. Paul Henry was not the problem he in fact carries the show. Ten reconsider please. Give it another year like you did The Project.Ignore the naysayers,
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Disappointing news.
The show has a fresh, honest and more direct approach. Paul Henry is fantastic and calls it like it is. Someone needs to give him his own nightime talk show.
Glad TEN are keeping Magdalena though.
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What not back to stef again boring . The ten show is fresh and fun 10 get your act together poor marketing of a good show .
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its not a good show though is it as nobody is watching it and so its been pulled. its a good show if it was only specialist and not looking for a mass audience, but sadly it was supposed to rival 7 and 9’s effort but failed, hence its a bad ‘mass appeal’ show. The Big Breakfast made Chris Evans a millionaire in the UK when he launched a revolutionary breakfast show -Network Ten take heed
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can we get the Zapruder crew to create a Breakfast show? sort of a Can of Worms meets the Project meets Breakfast TV format – I’d watch that!
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And more axings announced today.
Q1: will there be anybody left at 10 to read the news, or do much of anything else?
Q2: how long before Lachlan Murdoch axes the network completely, shifts its content to one of Ten’s digital HD channels like GEM, and uses 10 to broadcast Sky News as a free-to-air service to compete with ABC News 24?
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Paul Henry was an ignorant embarrassment good riddance http://www.abc.net.au/mediawat.....502629.htm
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Isn’t Ten mean to be the alternative? Isn’t their target audience younger than Seven and Nine? Maybe next time they should consider this before they create a breakfast show hosted by a 50-something year old man.
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@ Fran
What are you suggesting? Would a 50 something year old woman work better? or is just that a 50 year old person is unable to appeal to the young, or are the young unable to connect with a 50 years old person?
What is to happen to The Black Eyed Peas in a couple of years from now, when they all turn 40?
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Thank goodness! Henry is appalling, the less media coverage he gets the better.
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Looks like Mr Henry has very few fans out there. Or are the negative comments just an indication of his very few enemies?
If, and I say if, Paul Henry can be blamed for the demise of the show, then surely he can only be blamed for a small part of its failure to thrive. There were others involved, one of whom we all agree was very good at her job, so that leaves the bulk of the reason for its downfall to be identified as the awful production values.
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Thank goodness for the refreshing Paul Henry on Ten’s Breakfast. I had never watched Ten before but am addicted to the morning show, I am a hard working nurses and have a pretty serious life, watching the morning team is little short of SPECTACULAR and makes me smile, and I get to see the weather and news. Please reconsider!!!!!!!!!! isnt controversy good for media it draws attention. Paul comes across as intelligent, witty and yet doesnt suffer fools gladly isnt that a change to what we are force fed and dumbed down to have to tolerate. I think he sets a good example to young people too. Speak up or else become nothing.. Sociologists have emphasized the importance of mass media as instruments of social control, well Ten you are doing Australia proud with your brave friendly team who isnt trying to control opinion but open minds instead xxxxx
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Sooooo sad to here the news the show was axed. I absolutely loathe morning news shows but ten had a great show. I wish they would reconsider as it has been a delight to watch, even my kids get into it! I hope there is an about face and give it another go in the new year. It may have helped if there was a bit more publicity about the show as hardly anyone I know knew it was on.
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bring back kid’s tv! change the target demographic 🙂
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There is to much kids TV now…..
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Micallef stole the show. It’s continued its decline since then, give him the show to host! 🙂
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Thank God… It’s Dead.
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Paul Henry grows on you. I love his sense of humour. It took me a few weeks to get used to his style and detox from 7 and 9’s insanely dull and superficial entertainment format. Finally I had something to watch that focusses on current affairs and not sport, live music or winning money. I am so sick of bland journalism. Have you seen the video footage these days that goes with the segments? If there is an interview, we don’t get to watch the person being interviewed we are forced to watch trashy video that loosely relates to the topic. Usually it shows people from the waist down walking down the street – the standard footage especially for health related topics. If it is a segment to do with money or the GFC we have to watch headless people opening wallets or at cash registers. It is cheap and nasty production. I wish I discovered Paul Henry sooner. He is extremely knowledgeable in policitics and current affairs and is unashameably unapologetic about his shortcomings. He definitely can take the p**s out of himself. I’ve made him an honorary Ozzie. If only Channel 10 gave this show some more time to refine it and for people like me to discover it. Bring back politically incorrect!
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I am personally delighted at the removal of Poisonous Paul from my morning news update.
I was worried when they axed the sensible morning News segment and then the lovely group of Aussie ladies that they would introduce another set of clowns with Cash Cows, morning phone calls etc.
It was worse than I could have imagined.
Was recently in NZ and almost vomited at the interview with Paul Henry in the NZ Woman’s Weekly. What utter crap !
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Paul Henry and breakfast are the best 7 &9 are insipid. People are so scared of the truth. Henry says it like it is. 10 are gutless to axe the show
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Those who criticise Paul Henry and Breakfast simply don’t understand pure Aussie fun without all that PC jibba jabba. I am pissed that 10 has axed this great morning entertainment. The ratings would grow if a more professional marketing approach was employed. I love Paul’s wit, Kathryn’s “steady on Paul” interjections, Magdalena’s intelligent, informative sensual weather reports, and all the interstate reporters. Sunrise gave us Kevin 07 (God help us) and Nine the hungover Carl (and still hungover). Bring PH back!!. I need his wit, his giggle and his sexy throng of my wakey wakey beautiful ladies. BTW Mags. I LOVE LOVE LOVE your dress sense. Don’t change a thing. You give my heart a nice little rhythm for my day. Love you PH and Breakfast. Come back somehow next year. Rob of Perth
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I am a news junkie. I surf the moring stations looking for news. The morning shows combine news, entertainment and advertising bluring the lines between each. How about just a straight hour of news? Leave 9 and 7 to their entertainment shows, and the ABC to its technically and editorially substandard news 24,
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The best part was hearing Magdalena’s informative weather reports compared to some fast talking would be comedians reading off a pre written info card.Always nicer to hear someone who is educated in their field and delivers information from experience and a genuine passion for their field.She is a thinking persons weather woman,and very easy on the eye.Give me an early morning weather report anytime Magz wink wink
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Such a shame. Was a refreshing change to watch 10breakfast. Paul Henry is great, intelligent and tells it like it is. I’d rather watch the ABC for kids tv with my son than 7 or 9 breakfast shows!
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“Ten to axe breakfast”
What, so we have to wait until lunch? Who made Ten God?! I am starving!!!
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Paul Freakin’ Henry!
WTF was Lachie thinking?
A million bucks for that plonker! I hope he declared it to Centrelink.
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So now we’re stuck watching Kochie and Karl…
At least ten breakfast was different.
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