Seven’s daily shows Sunrise and The Morning Show have a ratings record that would be the envy of the TV world. As the month of August comes to an end, Seven is able to confirm that both programs have again won the TV survey year.
Audience leadership
Sunrise has now been the #1 breakfast TV program for 21 consecutive years. The Morning Show has been #1 for every year since launch 17 years ago.
Seven reports Sunrise reaches more than 4m viewers nationally, with Weekend Sunrise reaching 3.1m and the weekday The Morning Show reaching 3.2m.
This year, Sunrise is #1 across the combined capital cities, leading breakfast viewing in New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania; and is #1 across regional Australia. The national BVOD audience has increased 46% so far in 2024.
In the capital cities, Sunrise has a commanding 43.2% commercial audience share, 2.4 points bigger than its closest rival. Its audience share in regional markets is 48.4%, or 15.2 points bigger.
The traffic is not all one-way for Seven. Nine shared with Mediaweek recently its Today show data for the first seven months of the year showing Nine breakfast growing its audience nationally and across combined metro markets. There was growth also for the Melbourne and Sydney Today audiences year-on-year.
The Seven products seem to have never been more popular. Sunrise could have been battered during Paris 2024. While Nine’s Today show led for the duration of the Olympic Games, Seven Network director of morning television Sarah Stinson told Mediaweek they didn’t actually lose audience during that fortnight. The Olympic halo didn’t last long at Nine either she noted. “Last week Sunrise had its biggest winning margin of the year over Today.”
Driving the show are hosts Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington, with Edwina Bartholomew, Sam Mac and Mark Beretta.
As sister program The Morning Show, things are going well too. Co-host Larry Emdur has just won the TV Week Gold Logie. He and his co-host Kylie Gillies refer to their lead-in program as the warm-up for their ratings winning two-and-half-hours on air.
Stinson has just started her 20th year at Seven after joining Today Tonight as a producer in 2005.
The Gold Logie winner
“It was like a win for the whole industry,” Stinson said of the Larry Emdur Gold Logie.
“Larry has worked on everything and with everyone for all the networks. I feel like the industry really needed that win as well. It celebrated TV.
“It celebrated what everyone does best, the vaudeville, the breaking news, the entertainment. We were all laughing with him. It was like an obituary…but without having to die! We celebrated his best moments.”
The Morning Show’s Larry Emdure and Kylie Gillies.
Top image: Sunrise’s Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington
Constantly refreshing
Getting a gig on Seven’s morning television shows is hard. Although Sunrise has lost Kochie and Sam Armytage in recent years, there’s been limited opportunities for newcomers.
The exceptions have included Sunrise co-host Matt Shirvington and reporter Katie Brown. And Shirvington’s dog Murphy too of course. A regular Friday visitor, Murphy also turned up on International Dog Day this week.
Stinson explained she and the team are always looking to refresh things. “You have to evolve things. Doing the same thing day in and day out is a fast road to failure. I always say you’ve got to fix problems before they become an emergency.”
The Morning Show has had consistency with its hosts. Larry and Kylie have been there since it started.
But the format has evolved. “We used to get away with doing an eight-minute or nine-minute segment. Now they’re a lot shorter,” explained Stinson.
“We cram in a whole lot more for people who choose to spend time with us. We want to make sure that they’re getting as much value as they can in a very short amount of time.”
Seven Network director of morning television Sarah Stinson
Seven’s morning TV leadership team
Running a team filling up to six hours of TV across seven days a week needs a talented team. He is Seven’s morning TV leaders under Sarah Stinson.
Chloe Flynn: “Chloe is executive producer of The Morning Show. We’ve worked together for over 15 years. She’s an outstanding executive. She’s creative. She’s driven. She’s a compassionate leader. She is brilliant. She’s one of the absolute best in the business.”
Sean Power: A morning TV champion who’s recently been poached for 7News later in the day. “We came over and started at Sunrise together. His leadership style…so selfless his approach. It’s very much about the team. It’s very much about the content. You don’t really hear much about him. He’s got all those leadership qualities that are so vital for success. He’s compassionate and he’s curious.”
Jake Lyle: “Jake has started as executive producer. Jake is one of the brightest, younger talents. He hasn’t worked in broadcast as long as some of the dinosaur veterans. But he’s great. He’s so focused. He has a great pedigree. He started with Ben Fordham in radio. Having been trained with him, he’s definitely well ahead of the game. He had a stint at the Today show and then he was with us in a senior producer role. He’s doing great things.”
Holly Fallon: “Holly is the executive producer of Weekend Sunrise. She’s brilliant. Dedicated and passionate. We always talk about our team as PLU, people like us. I don’t hire, I cast. It’s important the kind of person someone is. I look for similar qualities, but different skills. To be on a leadership team here you’ve got to be passionate.”
Having a team like this means Stinson has the luxury of arriving at work about 6.30am on weekdays. Except for Friday when she’s on board for the 5.30am start.
Moving from Martin Place to Inner West
The people at Seven’s Martin Place news HQ might have been apprehensive about the move out of the CBD. Stinson explained how things started to change there some time ago.
“Martin Place changed significantly after the Lindt Cafe siege. We used to have so many people around the windows. After that though bollards went up around the windows restricting access.
“There was also the building of the new metro station. There was a lot of scaffolding and construction. There wasn’t as much foot traffic. And then there was Covid.”
All the team enjoy what the new studios offer. “Everything works, and we have much more space.”
See also: Sunrise officially makes the move to Seven’s new newsrooms and studios in South Eveleigh
Sunrise reporting team
Despite cost pressures on staff members right across all media companies, Sunrise is still able to maintain a team of metro reporters around Australia. That team is Liam Tapper – Sydney Reporter, Teegan Dolling – Melbourne, Andrew McCormack – Melbourne, Georgia Chumbley – Brisbane, Georgia Costi – Brisbane/Gold Coast and Hayden Nelson – Adelaide.
If big stories break around breakfast Sunrise can supplement the team with reporters from 7News.
The reporters need to be early birds too. Live and on location is important. And they need to be in place before 5am for crosses to Seven’s Sunrise 5am News bulletin.