Sunrise and
Weekend Sunrise are Australian
breakfast television programs, broadcast on
Channel Seven. On weekdays the program follows
Seven Early News, and runs from 6am through to 9am. On Sundays,
Weekend Sunrise runs from 7am to 10am.
Show history
The history of
Sunrise can be traced back to at least
17 January 1991 when
11AM newsreader Darren McDonald began presenting an early morning
Seven News - Sunrise Edition bulletin prior to hostilities breaking out during the Gulf War. Then, King of Norway
Olav V pass away.
In 1996, Seven introduced a one hour weekday bulletin called
Sunrise News, later renamed
Sunrise. Seven recruited
Chris Bath from
NBN Television to present the bulletin alongside
Peter Ford.
Ford moved to other presenting roles in 1996, and was replaced by finance editor
David Koch. In 1997, Chris Bath was transferred to Seven's
10.30pm News and was replaced by
Melissa Doyle. Seven launched a Sunday bulletin hosted by
Stan Grant, entitled
Sunday Sunrise, in 1997.
Weekday
Sunrise was cancelled in 1999, replaced by children's program
The Big Breakfast.
Seven maintained half-hourly news updates during
The Big Breakfast, and their Sunday bulletin was not affected by the axing.
During the Sydney 2000 Olympics
Andrew Daddo and
Johanna Griggs presented
Olympic Sunrise from a leased apartment near Lavender Bay in Sydney which provided the Harbour Bridge and Opera House as stunning waterside backdrops.
In 2000, the program was replaced by a new version of
Sunrise, hosted by
Georgie Gardner and
Mark Beretta, and music video program
AMV.
Other temporary
Sunrise hosts up until this time include
Anne Fulwood who was filling in for
Georgie Gardner at the time of the program's end,
Leigh Hatcher (now host of breakfast bulletin First Edition on
Sky News Australia) and
Nick McArdle previous (weekend sport reader,
Seven News Sydney).
In March 2002, Seven revamped their breakfast television schedule with
Seven Early News at 6:00 a.m., hosted by
Chris Reason (and only lasted around one week), and a new version of
Sunrise from 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., hosted by Reason and Melissa Doyle. Sunrise from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. began in February the same year. David Koch was brought in to present the finance reports. In October of that year, Reason discovered he had another cancerous tumour behind his kidney and had to quit. Four years earlier he had undergone treatment for another growth.
Koch was appointed temporary presenter, a position made permanent. Sunrise was yet again revamped soon after Koch's appointment, focusing less on hard news and became more
family friendly. The show, along with its rival
The Today Show on Nine, have become more tabloid focused. This has boosted ratings by moving people away from morning radio and the newspaper to the TV.
In 2003, the show began to pick up ratings, and appointed
Natalie Barr to present the news updates, followed by the appointment of former
Network Ten journalist
Grant Denyer to present weather reports, then the appointment of Mark Beretta, who was brought in to present sports updates. On
August 30,
2004,
Sunrise,
Seven News Sydney, and
Seven Morning News moved from their studios in
Epping to the new
Seven News centre at
Martin Place. On
29 January 2007 Sunrise had a complete makeover with changes to the set and on-screen graphics. Due to continued viewer feedback, the
Sunrise set changed again on
10 June 2007, Specifically, the new set includes more of the city into its shots by the installation of
smart glass. This glass, similar to that on the new
Boeing 787 allows for the transparency of the glass to be adjusted, ranging from clear, to partially transparent to completely opaque, showing as a solid blue. These changes have proved useful in shielding viewers from the actions of some passers by, notably, cast members of the
ABC show
The Chaser's War on Everything. The set was also modified so
The Morning Shows set could fit into the Martin Place current affairs studio. In October 2009, it was announced that at the start of 2010, Sunrise will receive a brand new set, format, graphics and logo.
Special editions
Occasionally, Sunrise may air a special Saturday edition. Special editions that have aired on Saturdays since 2003 included:
Musical guests
A number of musical guests have appeared on
Sunrise and performed live on the show. Like the rest of the studio, their stage area gives people on the street a chance to view the performances. Occasionally, musical guests perform 'on the plaza', on a temporary stage erected in
Martin Place. Musical performances normally take place at 7:50am and 8:50am, with most guests playing two songs.
Musical guests who have appeared on
Sunrise in 2007/2008 include:
Paulini,
Young Divas,
Pink,
Sam Sparro,
The Veronicas,
The Wiggles,
Hinder,
Take That,
Keith Urban,
Joss Stone,
Eskimo Joe,
Sneaky Sound System,
Thirsty Merc,
Missy Higgins,
Josh Groban,
Human Nature,
Grinspoon,
Avril Lavigne,
Patrizio Buanne,
Mika, Small Mercies,
The Androids,
Michael Buble,
Maroon 5,
Crowded house,
Silverchair,
Paul Kelly,
Colbie Caillat,
Bjorn Again,
Gym Class Heroes,
Editors,
Jose Gonzalez,
Josh Pyke,
Daddy Cool,
Something for Kate,
The Whitlams with the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra,
The Cat Empire,
Rogue Traders,
Kelly Clarkson,
The Last Goodnight,
Ben Lee,
Anthony Callea,
Delta Goodrem, David Campbell,
Kate Miller-Heidke,
Tina Arena,
Hi-5,
Operator Please,
Newton Faulkner,
Kelly Rowland,
Guy Sebastian and
Simple Plan,
Ian Moss
Weekend Sunrise
In 2005 the
Seven Network replaced its struggling Sunday morning program
Sunday Sunrise with a program called
Weekend Sunrise which originally was an hour long (8am - 9am) program with an identical format to Sunrise. Hosted by Chris Reason and Lisa Wilkinson, the program was successful and various critiques at the time called for the program to be lengthened to two hours (7am - 9am) and be extended to Saturday mornings as well as Sunday.
In 2006,
Weekend Sunrise was extended from an hour to a two hour show, running every Sunday from 8am till 10am. When
Sportsworld returned for the football season
Weekend Sunrise settled into a 90 minute format, 8am - 9.30am. After
Sportsworlds series concluded, the show returned to a two hour format.
Andrew O'Keefe initially temporarily replaced host
Chris Reason in 2006, but after improved ratings he was given the hosting position permanently. In 2007, Wilkinson moved to the Nine Network to host Today, and was replaced by
Samantha Armytage. In 2008,
Weekend Sunrise moved their start time 30 minutes earlier to 7.30am, to match the new start time of Nine's
Sunday program. The program continued to run through to 10am, meaning the program had a two-and-a-half hour running time.
In 2009, the program's start time was moved even eariler. Originally, it was announced that
Today on Sunday (now
Weekend Today), the replacement the long-running Nine's
Sunday, would run from 7.30 to 9am. But this was changed on 28 January 2009 to 7 to 9am. As result, Seven announced that
Weekend Sunrise would also commence at 7am and run through to 10am, meaning the program would go for 3 hours, the same as the weekday version of
SunriseFormat
Like most other breakfast television shows,
Sunrise blends a mixture of news every thirty minutes, interviews and light-hearted feature pieces into three hours each morning. Often they will go out and present the show from other locations, such as
Hawaii,
Las Vegas,
Athens and
Disneyland and more recently
Melbourne for their
Commonwealth Games specials,
Beaconsfield in Tasmania and
Dreamworld on the
Gold Coast. A major feature of the show is that the viewer can send in their responses to stories via email, SMS or phone. Viewers can also bring up issues they want reviewed or investigated and it is recorded on the ROSwall (Responses of Sunrisers).
News and traffic
[
Winnebago.jpg|right|thumb|The Sunrise Weather Winnebago in [[Mildura, Victoria].]]
Local news updates, following the national news updates at 6am, 7am, and 8am were launched on the
28 May 2007, offering viewers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart, and Perth news specific to their city. Prior to this, local weather and capital city traffic updates had already been inserted into the program. These were removed in June 2008, following the commencement of the
Seven News early news bulletin, due to logistical reasons.
Traffic reports are shown on the half hour during the show, and are presented in some cities from a local helicopter.
Presenters
Weekdays
Chris Reason was the original co-Anchor with Melissa Doyle, while
Grant Denyer,
Monique Wright and
David Brown were previous weather presenters. Denyer & Wright both still contribute to the show. Brown resigned from his role in July 2008, with no replacement until
2009, being Fifi Box.
[Fifi Box to be Sunrise regular, News.com.au, August 5 2008]
Current fill-in's that have recently hosted or co-hosted on Sunrise include
Kylie Gillies,
Natalie Barr,
Mark Beretta,
Larry Emdur,
Samantha Armytage,
Rebecca Maddern and
Mike Munro.
Other Seven presenters who have either filled in or presented
Sunrise in the past include
Matthew White,
Nick McArdle, Anne Fulwood,
Ben Davis,
Chris Reason,
Mike Amor, Emmy Kubainski,
Rosanna Mangiarelli, Joanne Desmond,
Sharyn Ghidella, and
Ben Damon, amongst others.
Weekend Sunrise
Previous presenters of Weekend Sunrise include co-hosts
Chris Reason and
Lisa Wilkinson.
Kylie Gillies was the original sports presenter until she moved to
The Morning Show and
Talitha Cummins read the news from 2007 until July 2008.
Recurring Sunrise reporters
| Presenter | Role | Tenure
|
| Nelson Aspen | Hollywood gossip | 2004-
|
| Jim Wilson | Talking Sport | 2004-
|
| Grant Denyer | "Dare Denyer", Fridays | 2007- (weather;2004-2007)
|
| Peter Blasina | "Gadget Guy" technology news | 2002-
|
| Rebecca Wilson | Talking Sport | 2009-
|
| James Tobin | Reporter | 2008-
|
| Dr. Keith Suter | International affairs | 2002-
|
| Dr. John D'Arcy | Medical expert | 2001-
|
| Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg | Parenting expert | 2006-
|
| Anne Hollands | Relationships Australia | 2004-
|
| Jo Lamble | Psychology expert | 2005-
|
| Barbara Northwood | Cooking, weekly | 2005-
|
| Darren Simpson | Cooking, weekly | 2001-
|
|
| Simon Reeve | Reporter | 2003-
|
| Hamish Macdonald | UK Bureau correspondent | 2009-
|
| Rahni Sadler | LA Bureau correspondent | 2007-
|
| Nuala Hafner | Entertainment Editor | 2009- (various reports before)
|
| Richard Arnold | UK Entertainment | 2009-
|
Controversies
In 2003 an interview aired live with Sue Butler from the
Macquarie Dictionary on the topic of swearing and what was acceptable.
Sue Butler: Today's taboos are all about labels that you use for people. So that the sentence, "you are a" is practically a no no. You cannot use...
David Koch: Even if you use boofhead.
Sue Butler: Even if you use boofhead because you're putting it in the same context as things which are clearly rude. You know: "You are a fuckwit." Well, obviously we know that's bad.
Doyle and Koch immediately ended the interview and apologised afterwards. This did not prevent angry viewers writing and emailing in complaints over the interview.
[Nincompoops at Sunrise, Media Watch, July 21 2003]
In 2006, a number of people including
Sunrise presenters David Koch and Melissa Doyle, newsreader Natalie Barr, executive producer
Adam Boland and Melbourne newsreader
Jennifer Keyte and former
Today Tonight host
Naomi Robson faced court convictions over a story run in 2004 relating to a 14-year old boy who "divorced" his mother. Under the Victorian Children and Young Persons Act, it is prohibited to publish the identity of a child involved in Children's Court proceedings. While the
Sunrise cast and crew were cleared of any wrongdoing the Seven Network itself was ultimately held responsible.
[Fines for divorce story, Herald Sun, May 18 2006]
Upon the rescue of trapped miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell in the aftermath of the
Beaconsfield mine collapse, David Koch was invited into an ambulance. This led to rival Channel Nine and
The Today Show labelling him an "ambulance chaser".
[The Tapestry of Seven v Nine, Media Watch, June 5 2006]
On
4 December 2006,
Sunrise host David Koch read the joke of the day, which received public outcry. The
Sunrise website quoting:
Kochie's joke of the day is being rested today after a controversial one yesterday. He got in a little strife from his big bosses.
We're currently deciding whether to keep Kochie's joke. What do you think?
The joke went along the lines of:
John Howard went skiing and his bodyguard saw 'John Howard is a Dork' peed into the snow...Johnny went off and told his guard to get a sample of it and find out who did it at all costs...The guard returned a day later and said we have good and bad news...Johnny asked what the good news was, and the guard retorted that it was Kim Beazley's urine...Johnny says right, he's stuffed now - throw the book at him...What's the bad news? The guard grins and says it was in Janette's handwriting.
In April 2007, reports surfaced that the show was lobbying Vietnamese authorities to hold an
ANZAC Day dawn service early so it could be broadcast live on television in Australia.
[Seven, Rudd deny Anzac Dawn fake broadcast report, Herald Sun, April 8 2007] Koch denied on-air that any such lobbying had occurred. His claim was proved false upon the release of email communications from the office of then opposition leader
Kevin Rudd. After considerable political fallout over the alleged request, opposition leader
Kevin Rudd and Liberal minister
Joe Hockey decided to end their regular weekly appearances on the program.
[Sun sets on Sunrise rivalry, The Age, 16 April 2007.]
On the
March 18,
2008 episode Koch and Doyle were ambushed by a group of protesters chanting and carrying placards that claimed "Channel 7 doesn't pay", a reference to
controversy surrounding the reported non-payment of winnings to
National Bingo Night audience members and home viewers.
[Kochie blames Nine for Sunrise ambush] The group, posing as fans of guest
Keith Urban, were driven away by security.
["Channel Seven doesn't pay!"] Koch later blamed the incident on the Nine Network's
A Current Affair, a theory that was lent credence when the same protesters appeared on that night's episode of the program.
[All's fair in ambush journalism and dodgy game shows?] Both Koch and co-host
Melissa Doyle promised to look into their allegations,
[ but later simply read a statement from the network.]
On September 26, 2008, Sunrise were broadcasting live from Melbourne when, at 7:50am, US singer Lady GaGa was due to perform. When the time came though, there was no one on stage, and Mel said that there had been technical difficulties in getting Lady GaGa on stage. The show went to an ad break, and broadcast the performance reportedly recorded the day before. The Sunrise crew were forced to apologize the following Monday, and took the live performances policy hard.
In 2009, Sunrise suffered its first ratings defeat against Today on a national basis since 2004; this significant milestone occurring on Good Friday.
Broadcasting
Because Australia has more than one time zone, Sunrise is not broadcast live to all of Australia, it is instead broadcast delayed. New South Wales (including ACT), Victoria, Tasmania have Sunrise broadcast live all year round, Queensland has Sunrise broadcast live in wintertime, but during Daylight Saving Time in Sydney has the program delayed by one hour. The Northern Territory has Sunrise delayed 30 minutes during winter and 1 hour and 30 minutes during Daylight Savings in Sydney. South Australia has it delayed by 30 minutes all year around, and Western Australia has it delayed by 2 hours in wintertime and by 3 hours during Daylight Savings in Sydney.
Occasionally, broadcasts of Sunrise are altered during special circumstances. On the morning of March 20 2006 when Sunrise is normally on a 1 hour delay in to Queensland, Sunrise was broadcast live in order to provide immediate and up-to-date information on Tropical Cyclone Larry to local residents. The show continued to be broadcast until 10am Sydney time only in to Queensland to continue these updates and prevent scheduling problems.
During 2008's World Youth Day in Sydney, Sunrise was extended on Thursday, July 17 and Monday, July 21 to cover the Pope's morning mass and the departure of the Pope respectively. Both of those editions ended at 9:30am with the Morning Show picking off the rest of the coverage.
When Weekend Sunrise was covering the Victorian bushfires in February 2009, the show extended its coverage until 11am, with the extra hour dedicated to the events occurring in Victoria.
Theme song
Sunrise uses Duran Duran's "(Reach Up for the) Sunrise" as its theme song. Formerly, it had used a more traditional morning news theme before switching to the song. In the past it has also used the Seven News theme which was based on the John Williams piece 'The Mission (theme song)'.
It currently has a different theme underneath the introductions. Anyone know what it is?
On a number of occasions, Sunrise may use a song by a singer who is due to perform to lead into the show. For example: if The Presets were due to perform on Sunrise, then the show may use My People to lead into the program.
See also
