EAMONN HOLMES

Breakfast TV is tired out and needs a totally fresh approach, argues the veteran presenter

Decades on, I can still vividly recall the excitement when Breakfast Time launched on the BBC in January 1983, with Frank Bough in his Alan Partridge-style sweater alongside Selina Scott on the sofa. It seemed like the most wonderful thing to be able to watch TV before going to work or school. Then just a few weeks later we had Anne Diamond and Nick Owen on the rival TV-Am. It was a genuine TV revolution.

At the time, I was hosting an evening magazine show on Ulster TV. Little did I realise ten years later I’d be on the sofa myself hosting GMTV. That was 20 years ago and now I’m the longest-serving breakfast TV host in the world – how amazing!

So it may seem surprising that I think breakfast TV has had its heyday – the novelty’s probably worn off and the audience has moved on. Although the names of the shows have changed, on BBC and ITV we’re seeing a format that’s barely altered in 30 years. As for the presenters, all are very good but most look like your maiden aunt and uncle – and I include myself – dressed as if they’re off to a wedding disco. It’s too formal.

There are the constant questions: ‘Who should present Daybreak?’ or ‘Should BBC Breakfast be based in London or Manchester?’ But they’re irrelevant if the fundamentals are wrong and the overall audience is in decline. In the 90s, GMTV, BBC Breakfast and Channel 4’s Big Breakfast together regularly pulled in 3.5 million viewers. Now, of the remaining shows, the average audience for BBC Breakfast is around 1.5 million while Daybreak rarely gets more than 600,000.

In my opinion, the Americans have got breakfast TV sussed. The template should be Fox News’s Fox & Friends, which has three presenters on a horseshoe sofa. They look well groomed, they’re slick, professional and talk like a family – viewers feel a familiarity with them and think they all get on famously. It may not seem like the biggest innovation but it’s a hit with the public.

With my show on Sky News, Sunrise, I do my best to make the news as entertaining as possible. It’s got to be fast, interesting and controversial or why should people watch? I believe I have the most privileged job in the world but there are downsides, like the nights when I go to bed at 11pm, can’t sleep until 2.30am and then the alarm goes off an hour later. I look at pictures of myself when I began on GMTV and the way I am now and I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t taken its toll. Nevertheless, I love it and hope the industry can come up with a fresh format that will get viewers excited again.