Ten’s Breakfast experiment bows out
Ten has bowed out of the battle for morning ratings with the last episode of Breakfast airing this morning.
The show – which was axed at the beginning of the month because of poor ratings – ran since February .
This morning, presenter Kathryn Robinson said a tearful goodbye to viewers, revealing that she would also be leaving the network where she has spent most of her journalistic career to date.
Meanwhile, co-host Paul Henry took a slightly more pragmatic approach, telling viewers: “I decided I would dedicate the last program to the viewers. There weren’t many of you because we decided early on to go for quality over quantity. In hindsight, a mistake.” Yesterday the show rated a metro audience of just 34,000 according to OzTAM.
He added: ‘It’s been absolute fun. Most of the time. Getting up at this time of the morning, which we won’t have to do any more, has been horrible.”
The show also aired The Hamster Wheel’s tribute to Breakfast’s most notorious moments.
Ten has said that it intended to return to the breakfast market “at some point” next year.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin
there was a breakfast show on channel 10?
User ID not verified.
@max – And it was fantastic. A very unashamedly honest and clear-cutting show. Not sure if I’ve any reason to turn to Channel Ten anymore, or even the TV anymore. Well, except to use the DVD player.
User ID not verified.
well that sux thats it is finished . gave me a choice , not to watch the other two silly shows
User ID not verified.
Ten will fight back – oh yes!
User ID not verified.
Max was trying to be a smarta—. Are people saying that Today and Sunrise appeal to them and give them everything they need by way of entertainment? Hope Channel 10 has a rethink and bring back Breakfast in another format.
User ID not verified.
Shame it’s gone – it was a great show. Much better than its competition – Australians are just too dumb to recognise it.
User ID not verified.
Goodbye Breakfast – and goodbye to more shareholder funds.
Let’s add it to the wonderful list of terrible failures by Lachlan and James – Young Talent Time, The Shire, Lara Bingle, Everybody Dance Now, The Living Room, Breakfast….
I wonder how many ten’s of millions have been wasted in pursuit of failure.
Shareholders only know they have lost 80% of their value and to add insult no dividend !!
User ID not verified.
Like @Adam, I enjoyed Breakfast too. Can’t bear weekday Sunrise or Today as a result of making the switch.
I think a lot of people wrote-off Breakfast without actually ever watching it – Henry isn’t that bad and was great at interviewing politicians and cutting through the crap. Kath was really great – holding her own next to Henry and a smart, switched on host. I wish her well!
User ID not verified.
Such good news, Paul was not funny and came across as educated as Allan Jones.
User ID not verified.
I didn’t mind breakfast. I’d absolutely choose it over the other two offerings. But the problem is that no one in their target demographic has the time to watch it.
User ID not verified.
Breakfast failed like so many other Aussie shows because it failed to stick to its initial remit. Instead it changed, made Paul Henry soften his approach and tried to be the same as its competitors. By being the same, why would you bother to change channels from your regular viewing? Channel 10, 7 and 9 all have the same shows with different names. The only way to succeed now is to shake things up and to ignore initial viewing figures and to play the slowly, slowly approach. Good execs and good advertisers should know this.
User ID not verified.
I agree wholeheartedly with Adam. Ten’s Breakfast was absolutely brilliant. Although personally I never have time to watch TV in the morning, I would always catch up on the great material on their website.
I hear a lot of rubbish by supposed media ‘pundits’ in the newspapers about why the show was a ratings failure. In my opinion, it had nothing to do with the show’s quality, the hosts’ chemistry, or Paul Henry’s ‘antics’. His political incorrectness is nothing worse than the ‘popular’ work of the Chaser and such comedians as Ricky Gervais.
Perhaps Breakfast simply did not attract any of the Sunrise/Today viewers (who must enjoy the constant braindead giggling of the co-hosts over the most unfunny things), and was completely unknown to many people who had been turned off Australian breakfast TV by the likes of Sunrise and Today. Indeed, I only became aware of Breakfast (and Paul Henry) through the Hamster Wheel.
Another problem was that no TV critic/pundit was willing to give the show a chance, perhaps due to fear of losing their jobs due to public outcry over actually liking the foreigner Paul Henry. Hence anyone who had never seen the show could only be given a bad impression about it from the instant.
But how any serious TV journalist could condemn a breakfast show that actually had a strong emphasis on news, weather, & topical current affairs over the garbage that is Sunrise and Today is beyond me. Oh but fear that my TV journalistic integrity be compromised for criticising a show with high ratings!
ABC News Breakfast (not a bad breakfast choice by any means) had similar ratings to Ten Breakfast, on a nowadays higher rating network, but no TV critic was game enough to contemplate why it hasn’t been able to pull viewers for years now. Perhaps the simply fact is that the majority of breakfast viewers really do not want to hear about actual news, and would much rather numb themselves to reality on Channel 7 and 9.
I will sincerely miss Ten Breakfast, and especially Kathryn Robinson and Paul Henry, who I think will both meet success elsewhere, probably not in this increasingly politically correct country.
User ID not verified.
Trying hard to feel sorry for Paul Henry.
Not succeeding though.
User ID not verified.
They should have had a cash pig (to rival the cash cow) and give away money – the viewers would have watched (or just tape the show just for the code word)
User ID not verified.
I loved the show and will sadly miss it. It was so refreshing after lala land from the other two breakfast shows on offer. Paul and Kath were brilliant working together. I cannot believe that enough Australians did not give it a fair go and stuck with the other fluff on offer.
I wish you both well in your future endeavours. Definitely our loss. My mornings wont be the same.
User ID not verified.
Paul Henry’s darker, very New Zealand sense of humour got lost in translation here. The feel good brigade who have been raised on a saccharine diet of hosts like Kerri Anne and friends, stories about rescued baby wombats didn’t get it. A shame because once you get that he’s taking the piss,he’s actually quite funny.
User ID not verified.
Bloody big shame. I switched from the other two shows and can now never go back to their mindless giggling about nothing, repetition of the same phrases such as ‘gotta love…’ and ‘big fella’, lack of real news, and tame interviews. When Breakfast sorted its format to focus on Paul and Kath with a solid news reader a intelligent weather reporter, it became addictive. I actually got up an hour earlier to watch it. Bugger!
User ID not verified.
Oh shit, does this mean that all the Kiwis who donated to the ‘lets send that twat Paul Henry to Australia’ fund are going to want their money back?
Hey Meh you’re taking the piss too aye bro!
User ID not verified.
It is very disappointing to see it is not there anymore , i feel very sad and it it our big loss.All the best for everyone , we will miss you a lot.xxoo
User ID not verified.
Didn’t know that Paul Henry had so many relatives.
And for the record it was awful. One of the best things about leaving NZ was not having to listen to or watch Paul Henry.
If I want an opinion, I will form one not farm one.
Ch10 play cartoons and Tele Tubbies type programmes. You will pick up audience and revenue and it will cost you nothing. And even Tele Tubbies make more sense than Henry.
User ID not verified.
Farewell Paul Henry. Don’t let the customs door hit you on the ass on the way out!
User ID not verified.
As an educated 32 year old, I also thought the show was much better than Sunrise and Today. But I only saw it during the two times I’ve watched breakfast TV this year.
I agree with #10 – Paul Henry and the show generally didn’t appeal to the target audience of Today/Sunrise, but the audience it did appeal to don’t watch breakfast TV.
User ID not verified.
If only he WAS taking the piss meh.
User ID not verified.
In his own words Paul Henry is a Twat, but Ch. 10 knew what they were buying when they brought him over – they had many years of archival footage from TV One in NZ which amply demonstrated that fact.
I feel a bit sorry for Kathryn Robinson – the few times I watched, she looked either nervous, or just pained from having to share a desk with him, and she is good TV talent.
I note that Magdalena Rose isn’t going anywhere, and has an ongoing gig with Ten – that may well be the show’s legacy, as she is top-notch talent.
User ID not verified.
Liam – so you were the one that watched Breakfast!
You must be upset it has been canned.
User ID not verified.
Will have to go to work earlier now. Too bad I thought it was good morning entertainment. Great people on the show and certainly the best weather. See ya guys will miss the show. Whatever U do ten don’t put on some crap like the other 2 channels. U had a good show Australia just didn’t get it.
User ID not verified.
I loved the show. Intelligent and perceptive comments by Paul, and a good pace. No stupid financial give-aways either. I’m sooo bored with the bland and predictable alternatives, I think I’ll go back to the radio from now on.
It’s a great loss.
User ID not verified.
Really devastated that such a great show and such great hosts like Kath, Paul and Magz have been so misjudged.
Every morning I would get out of bed with an anticipation of watching “breakfast” and listening to no nonsense straight talk of both Paul and Kath. What a great pair.
Now I have nothing to watch in the mornings.
TEN…what madness…cutting the only show that was actually worth turning on the TV in the morning.
WHat a great comment by Henry even on his last show…..quantity over quality…Thanks Paul…I am one of you quality viewers…All the best for your future. Will miss u..and you too Kath and Magz…the most beautiful weather presenter ever.
User ID not verified.
Oh, this is Australia … whaddya expect?
User ID not verified.
nickatnights you clearly lack any ability in reading comprehension. I stated in my first paragraph that I have no time to watch breakfast TV. Indeed, I might have actually changed my routine to watch more of Breakfast live, but well, I was satisfied with watching the highlights online.
I definitely agree with the comments that the current Australian breakfast ‘audience’ was simply not an audience that Breakfast was able to target. And could anyone who hates Breakfast say with a straight face that it was actually worse than the intellectually stimulating Sunrise and Today?
I also agree that Breakfast really only hit its stride once they went to the newsroom setup. I think that was a much stronger contrast to 7 and 9 than the fairly ridiculous ‘Australiana’ set they had before. If only they had have debuted with the news centric format to begin with, the show would have been better received.
User ID not verified.
@Liam I agree. Once they got the format together it was promoted/too late. Alas, poor Yorick!
User ID not verified.
We are the poorer for its passing-if for no other reason than it was different to the other networks-how sad that they are the winners in all of this. Henry and Robinson are very talented and are wasted in the basket case of 10.
User ID not verified.
To the breakfast haters here, you are inadvertently supporting that twat Grant Denyer.
If sunrise got rid of if all of its presenters and started again, they could have something…………
User ID not verified.
It would appear that every single person who watched this dud has posted a comment above…
User ID not verified.
Rather than kick a dead horse with a redundant joke Bobby Dazzler, the ‘34,000’ viewership figure quoted in the article does not correspond to the 33 comments before you.
It might correspond to the number of OzTAM households (of the 3000) watching though. An absolutely brilliant rating system that was so accurate it could tell when Ten Breakfast had a viewership of 0 one morning.
User ID not verified.
To Matt who said this”I feel a bit sorry for Kathryn Robinson – the few times I watched, she looked either nervous, or just pained from having to share a desk with him, and she is good TV talent. ” so you think Lisa whats her name doesnt cringe when Karl pia says embarrassing things. Lisa smiles a smile that says” I want to keep my job so I have to keep this smile going no matter what this twat says”!! And everyone on the couch or whereever they are sitting these days smiles along and laughs along at whatever Karl does. Is there any difference to Paul Henry’s behaviour? ,People are so quick to criticise Paul without even having watched the show.They just jump on the criticise bandwagon. Paul is the Kiwi but people here are the sheep!!!
User ID not verified.
I tend to watch whichever channel I was watching the night before i.e. I just switch on the T.V. and go about my business. Not once did I switch on with the Ten breakfast show automatically on, if I had I would have watched it.
User ID not verified.
More Channel 10 ‘talent’ (talent is a stretch given they have none) that should be off air. Great to see both Paul Henry and Yumi Stynes taken off TV this year
User ID not verified.