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For the British television program, see Sunrise (UK TV series). Sunrise is an Australian breakfast television program, broadcast on the Seven Network and its affiliates. It airs at 6am - 9am weekdays.
History The history of Sunrise can be traced back to at least 17th 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 *. In 1991, Seven introduced Sunrise News, later renamed Sunrise. Seven recruited Chris Bath from NBN Television to present the bulletin alongside Peter Ford. Later on Ford was replaced by finance editor David Koch. In 1997, Bath moved on to other presenting duties at the network, and was replaced by Melissa Doyle. In 1998, it was replaced by The Big Breakfast, a children's program, with news updates at the top of each hour for the adults. 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. When Gardner left Seven to join the Nine Network, Anne Fulwood replaced her for a short time before the show was revamped yet again. Other temporary Sunrise hosts up until this time include Leigh Hatcher (now host of breakfast bulletin First Edition on Sky News Australia) and Nick McArdle (weekend sport reader, Seven News Sydney). In March 2002, Seven revamped their breakfast television schedule with Seven Early News at 6am, hosted by Chris Reason (and only lasted around one week), and a new version of Sunrise from 6.30 to 9am, hosted by Reason and Melissa Doyle. Sunrise from 6am-9am 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, in recent years, more tabloid focused, moving the realm of talk back radio into breakfast television. This has boosted ratings by moving people away from morning radio and the newspaper to the T.V. 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 September 1, 2004, Sunrise, Seven News Sydney, Seven Morning News, and Weekend Sunrise moved from their studios in Epping to the new Seven News centre at Martin Place. Presenters
Format 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). 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 b Sue Butler: Even if you use b Doyle and Koch immediately ended the interview and apologised afterwards. This did not prevent angry viewers writing and emailing in complaints over the interview. In 2006, a number of people including Sunrise presenters David Koch and Melissa Doyle, newsreader Natalie Barr, and executive producer Adam Boland 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. 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 lead to rival Channel Nine and The Today Show labelling him an "ambulance chaser". Weekend Sunrise In 2005 the Seven Network replaced its struggling Sunday morning program Sunday Sunrise with a program called Weekend Sunrise which is an hour long (8am - 9am) program with an identical format to Sunrise. The program has been successful and various critiques have called for the program to be lengthened to two hours (7am - 9am) and extended to Saturday mornings as well as Sunday. In 2006, Weekend Sunrise has increased 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 but after Sportsworld's series concluded, the show returned to a two hour show. Presenters Simon Reeve Kylie Gillies See also | ||||||||||
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