If you’re a fan of commercial breakfast television, it’s likely you’ll fit into one of two major camps. You either wake up with Today, or you eat your toast with Kochie and Sam on Sunrise.
It’s no secret that the shows are rivals. They’re in the same time slot, with very similar layouts, and both programs even underwent highly anticipated desk make-overs this year.
But a source has revealed to The Courier Mail that the breakfast TV battle extends far beyond some healthy competition, and both programs have been resorting to some pretty sneaky tactics in order to get the upper hand.
“It’s always been dog-eat-dog. But it is getting worse,” the insider said.
Apparently the show have been poaching big name guests, in an effort to subvert the ratings potential for the other network. “Some talent does stick with the original show that booked them due to ethics,” the source told The Courier Mail. “Others respond to money.”
The bidding war for celebrity talent is tough. It has been alleged that last week Nine producers drove to the residence of a guest who was set to appear on Channel Seven, and told them to bin off their Sunrise booking in order to appear exclusively on Today.
What’s even more intense, is that Today have been accused by the insider of going “so far as to approach talent already locked in to Sunrise and pretend to be Sunrise and change the location and time of the interview.”
The insider revealed another common tactic is time-wasting. If both networks have the same guest booked, one might delay their segment or keep the guest waiting in the green room, making them late for their interview on the competitor’s show. Or miss it altogether.
There is also a case of the copy-cats going around. On Sunday night, Sunrise announced they were taking their show on the road. On Monday morning, Today announced a similar program, saying they would be broadcasting from a different state every day. Both programs had representatives broadcasting from Sydney’s northern beaches yesterday. Coincidence? I think… probably not.
Sunrise’s interview with UN Humanitarian ambassador Kristin Davis, has now become infamous, and host Samantha Armytage was subject to a tirade of social media and journalistic criticism.
You can watch Sam discuss the incident on No Filter with Mia Freedman here (post conitnues after video):
While viewers and media alike were caught up in Sam’s Carrie wig, Today host Lisa Wilkinson sent a cheeky tweet inviting the actress onto their show.
“Congratulations @KristinDavis on your wonderful work with@UNrefugees,” Wilkinson wrote. “Next time ur in Oz, love to have u on@TheTodayShow to talk about it.”
According to The Daily Mail, both programs pulled in 317,000 viewers last week. A dead heat.
Look, if the cash cow goes missing or someone puts pepper in Karl’s coffee it might be time to call a truce.
Listen to Samantha Armytage on No Filter with Mia Freedman:
Top Comments
I actually wonder if most people do what I do, I watch both as I flick from channel to channel. I have a strange work schedule and I just quickly watch it for approx 10 mins whilst I have my breakfast. And my breakfast could be at any time, but it seems like I always seem to catch either the news or sport which takes up about 10 mins and is on every 20 mins, I find this very tedious because I don't enjoy watching either. Then the inbetween 20 mins has a lot of ads as well as those in house ads (though they tend to be later in the morning). So essentially I feel like there is rarely anything of interest to watch on them, I can't really see how they are different, so I can't really see how anyone would have a preference for one over the other. The hosts to me all seem perfectly pleasant, some I like a little more than others, but mostly I have no real preference for any of them. Occasionally I see a bit I like, for instance the grill or kochies angels equivalent, and they have the occasional good interview but I feel like I have to watch for ages to get these tiny little segments, because I don't like cooking, kids or royalty or any of the on the road segments, and there is usually at least one of those type things on to. Seems to be a lot of fluff on them. I just like the discussion type topics and interviews. I tried watching ABC but that is at the opposite end, talking about serious topics first thing in the morning, I want something semi serious but not too heavy as I am half asleep anyway (not a morning person).
Yes I'm a picky little thing! Maybe I'm the only one with these strange set of preferences but I wish they would do a show that was just talk about topics and interviews but without all the other stuff. Maybe I'm the only one though that would appeal to?
Also seems strange that they steal each other's guests and formats etc, seems to me it would make more sense for them to have different options, because for instance for every popular celeb there will probably be just as many who don't like that celeb. For instance because I have no interest in royalty I would turn the TV off if that princess they always talk about was on (forgot her name), but if on the other side there was a Hollywood star I would watch that as I love movies. But no doubt some other viewer would prefer royalty overy Hollywood, and flip to the princess. So surely by being diverse they are guaranteed some viewers.
I also find ACA and Today Tonight do the same thing, one will have something on how a can of beans has too much water, and I think Wow how riveting! But when I turn over to the other side they have the same story! Which makes me wonder if I'm the only person in Australia not spending sleepless nights worried about the water to product ratio in my tinned food!
This is standard practice in TV. The current affairs shows have been trying to spoil each other for years.
I can remember Frontline parodying it in the mid 90's, and I'm sure it goes back much farther than that.