In news you do not want to be hungover and an employee of Network Ten to receive, Ten’s new breakfast show Wake Up did just that today to a nightmarishly small debut audience of 52,000 viewers according to preliminary OzTam ratings, bestowing upon the show the prestigious honorific of being the 219th most watched show for the day that was yesterday, Monday November 4th.
According to Mumbrella, the inaugural episode averaged some 29,000 viewers in its first half hour, while David Koch reading out mean tweets about himself in a gagged ripped straight from Jimmy Kimmel Live attracted 368,000 early-risers; whatever hijinks Karlos was getting up to on Nine averaged a semi-comparable 321,000.
Debuting a new television format, especially a breakfast show on a known to be ailing network, is an unenviable task; luring Sunrise and Today Show devotees, as well as all those untapped viewers who could care less about breakfast television at 6:30am, was never going to be an easy ask either.
While Wake Up’s initial audience share kicked off with figures considerably less than those of its network rivals, producers behind the show remain hopeful (see below) that things will get better over time as audiences latch onto the affable charms of James Mathison, Natasha Exelby, Natarsha Belling and Nuala Hefner broadcast direct from the picturesque Manly Surf Clubhouse. That, or they’ll wake up to themselves, realise what a blessing an extra hour in the morning is and go back to sleep.
Wake Up airs weekdays from 6:30am on Ten, and is followed by Studio 10 with Ita Buttrose and Joe Hildebrand at 8:30am.
@MediaweekAUS always going to be a tough ride. Now we just have to bed in. We always said it would take time. Promising start.
— Adam Boland (@postboxadam) November 4, 2013
via Mumbrella
