TV Guide has an early morning start to tag along with the outspoken Mark Richardson.
It’s an early start and late finish for Mark Richardson on Thursdays. Sarah Nealon calls on her reserves of stamina to join him at The AM Show and The Project to watch the TV presenter in action.
It’s 4.45am on a Thursday and Mark Richardson has bloodshot eyes and a red face.
He hasn’t been in a fight or doing anything illegal. He just forgot to apply sunscreen yesterday afternoon when he went surfing.
For his job as a presenter on The AM Show, a sunburnt Richardson arrives at Three’s Auckland premises at 4.30am. The alarm goes off at 4am in his home and 10 minutes later he’s on the road, driving to work.
At my house the alarm went off at 3.30am and I promptly hit the snooze button before forcing myself to get out of bed five minutes later.
I’m too tired to apply ‘proper’ make-up but manage some mascara and a slap of lipstick. By the time I’m at Three’s headquarters roughly an hour later, Richardson’s co-host Amanda Gillies is already in the hair and make-up department.
In another part of the building Duncan Garner, Richardson’s co-host, is at his desk chatting away to Richardson.
If you think 4.30am is far too early to be at work, spare a thought for the team of people who work behind the scenes at The AM
Show – some of whom are in the office by 3.30am.
Richardson is briefed by the sports department who fill him in on the latest news in tennis and golf. He then sits at a computer and reads background notes on topics slated for discussion on the show.
Then it’s off to the make-up and wardrobe department. Richardson can wear his shorts and jandals but must change into a shirt which he chooses from
a rack of garments a stylist has selected for him. He aims not to wear shirts in colours that clash with what Gillies is wearing. “On Tuesdays I always wear blue,” says Richardson, who has made no secret of his National political leanings. “That’s when Jacinda Ardern comes in.” Once he has the work shirt on and has had a shave, it’s time for hair and make-up. He requests eye drops but the make-up team can’t find any. When The AM Show kicks off at 6am, the topic of Richardson’s red eyes comes up. His co-hosts give him a bit of stick but he doesn’t mind and tells the viewers about his surfing-without-sunblock outing. In fact, he insists the camera zooms in on his face so viewers can get a better look at his bloodshot eyes. During an ad break Richardson says, “My eyes are so gritty. I would like to take them out and give them a rinse.” Today’s episode of The AM Show features guests Judy Bailey, who is promoting the Military Tattoo, economist Shamubeel Eaqub, who talks house prices, and firefighter Chris Southwick, who discusses his experiences battling bush fires in Australia. The AM Show (which is also simulcast on Magic radio) first went to air three years ago. Gillies and Garner were already seasoned reporters while Richardson’s TV experience came primarily in the form of presenting The Block and The Crowd Goes Wild.
The three co-hosts have a good rapport and while the show’s on-air schedule is mapped out beforehand, there is a lot of ad-libbing during the live filming. At no stage during the morning, does anyone seem stressed or flustered. But for Richardson, 48, there are times when things can be unsettling. “Sometimes you can get stressed if it’s not going how you want,” he says.
“I sometimes get nervous if I’ve actually prepared something like an editorial and I know it’s coming up at say 7.25 or something.
“I get nervous because you’ve prepared it quite hard and you want to nail it. So you get a bit of performance anxiety I guess.”
When the show finishes at 9am, there is some promotional voice work the presenters must do. Then it’s time for a debrief and planning meeting upstairs.
Gillies has to rush off early for an appointment but Richardson, Garner and the production team sit in a meeting room for a debrief on the morning’s episode.
There are also discussions on upcoming stories and which guests are wanted for future episodes.
After the meeting, Richardson has some downtime so he heads home for a nap – something he does most Thursdays.
By 3.30pm he’s back at work and this time he’s at The Project offices for his weekly Thursday night spot as its ‘fourth host’.
While he is sitting in ‘hair and make-up’ we have a chat about how his day is going. It’s busy, but not as busy as when his Thursdays include filming for The Block too.
“On Tuesdays I always wear blue. That’s when Jacinda Ardern comes in.”
– Mark Richardson
But Richardson is by no means complaining about his lot. He likes being on television.
Anyone who has watched him on screen, particularly in the past few years, will know he isn’t afraid to speak his mind – even if his opinions make him unpopular.
His infamous on-screen spat with Jacinda Ardern about whether women should tell a potential employer if they wish to have children was big news at the time.
Many criticised Richardson for daring to say: “If you’re the employer at a company, you need to know that type of thing from the women you’re employing.”
That was back in 2017 before Ardern became Prime Minister. So how are things between him and the Labour leader?
“We’re fine,” he says. “I’m allowed to disagree with her point of view – and I will. She’s perfectly entitled to disagree with what I think.
“If everyone agreed, the world would be a particularly boring place. She’s a politician as well. So there will be things that are the party line that she will always have to take.
“If I’m going to cough something up that’s not part of their party line well then she’s going to disagree. But she’s a nice person.”
Richardson has his fair share of detractors but he also has his fans.
However, anyone who goes looking for his Facebook page or Instagram account may be disappointed.
“I have no social media,” he says. “I got rid of it all. I think it’s a cancer on society so I figure if I’m going to say that then I shouldn’t be having it myself.
“I just don’t see any good in it. I can understand why The AM Show needs a Facebook page, The Project needs a Facebook page, MediaWorks needs a Facebook page but as an individual I don’t need a Facebook page.
“My outlet is The AM Show and The Project or the telephone. I see too much bad in it (Facebook). I just see it as responsible for too many ills these days.”
While some of Richardson’s MediaWorks colleagues such as Newshub’s Samantha Hayes and Mike McRoberts have appeared on the network’s Dancing With The Stars series, the former Black