How Did ‘Wake Up’ Go So Wrong?

This week, Network Ten premiered Wake Up, its latest foray into the world of breakfast television. So far, it hasn’t been going so well. Hosted by Natasha Exelby, Natarsha Belling and James Mathison, the show attempts to cater to younger, social media savvy viewers, but it seems these viewers are staying away in droves. The situation is so bad that on Wednesday of this week, Wake Up’s executive producer Adam Boland took an indefinite leave of absence, citing ‘health reasons’ for his departure. So what the hell is happening over at Wake Up, and can Network Ten turn its multi-million dollar failure around before it’s too late?

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Wake Up’s ratings are abysmal

If you haven’t caught an episode of Wake Up yet, you’re not alone: according to ratings figures, very few people have. The show’s Monday premiere attracted a disappointing 52,000 viewers, compared with 368,000 for Seven’s Sunrise and 321,000 for Nine’s Today in the same time slot. When these numbers came out, Adam Boland took to Twitter in an attempt to put a positive spin on them, saying that Monday’s viewership was a “promising start” against the established competition. By Thursday, however, the number of viewers had shrunk to 29,000. Today’s figures aren’t in yet, but the smell of desperation definitely hangs in the air.

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It’s the same old breakfast show

In launching Wake Up, Network Ten said that they wanted a morning show that would appeal to the vague yet coveted ‘youth demographic’. The question is, were the youth actually crying out for a morning show in the first place? I’m not sure whether Wake Up was created to feed an existing demand, or whether Network Ten were crossing their fingers and hoping like hell that a demand would arise once younger viewers caught a whiff of their show, but either way, it’s not working.

In terms of its format and content, Wake Up is about as generic as morning TV gets. The hosts discuss the stories of the day for a couple of hours, alternating between light-hearted banter about Kim Kardashian’s post-baby body and serious questions on topics like bikie gangs and whether it’s okay to tell your kids that they’re fat. There are news headlines, live crosses to Hollywood… you get the idea. Wake Up offers exactly the same things that the other breakfast shows do, but with a lot less polish than the competition.

The main area where Wake Up tries to differentiate itself is in its use of social media. The panel read out Facebook posts from viewers, play viral videos, and in the show’s most original touch, invite a special guest in each day to live-tweet the proceedings. Sure, the youth like their social media, but in 2013, so does everyone: Facebook polls, viewer Tweets and the like are the bread and butter of morning TV, and both Sunrise and Today have been successfully utilising social media for years at this point. Apparently, saying the words ‘Twitter’ and ‘Facebook’ over and over and showing an endless loop of the viral video where doctors and nurses dance to Beyoncé isn’t enough to get young people interested.

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The hosts are incredibly awkward

A certain lack of polish is understandable for a show in it’s first week, but James, Natasha and Natarsha have zero chemistry. At times, the three of them are just downright painful to watch. This morning’s episode, for instance, featured a news story from the US about a young man who died in prison because guards ignored his milk allergy. At story’s end, the hosts sat in stunned, uncomfortable silence. “Let’s kick off… erm… wrap up with something lighter,” Natarsha stammered at the news reader, because someone had to say something. It was one of many, many similar moments this week, and it’s becoming clear that the three hosts do not know how to discuss news stories together.

Later in the same episode, roving reporter Sam Mac tried to build up some hype for Thor: The Dark World. “It’s a massive week for cinema, are you guys excited?” he asked. “No,” came Natasha’s curt reply. Mac was visibly stunned. “Okay… But let’s feign enthusiasm and keep talking about it,” he said, in a noble but failed attempt to keep the banter rolling. Wake Up has had a few expected technical glitches in its first week — a dude with a surfboard casually wandering across the shot, poorly-timed live crosses — but the stilted nature of the hosts is a far more serious problem.

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They know things are bad

Wednesday morning’s announcement that producer Adam Boland — who created Seven’s incredibly successful Sunrise during his tenure at the network — would be taking indefinite leave from the show (“Adam Boland is unwell and therefore taking a break,” a representative of Network Ten said) proved that stress is taking its toll on the show’s staff. It’s affecting the panel members, too.

Yesterday afternoon, Natarsha Belling forgot to pay after filling her car up at a petrol station — presumably, she was preoccupied wondering if she’d still have a job this time next week. She owned up and apologised and was a good sport when the rest of the panellists mocked her about it, but the whole thing made for an excruciating couple of minutes of television. Somewhere in Sydney, I imagine that Belling is chugging a martini for lunch and trying to forget this week ever happened.

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What can they do about it?

Wake Up is clearly trying as hard as it can to muster up some enthusiasm from viewers. Judging by the tone of today’s episode, they’ve decided that remaining cheerful and upbeat in the face of certain doom is the way to go. Either that, or a sobbing network executive told the hosts to ‘just please be funnier, you guys.’ James Mathison cracked jokes about Nazi sex parties, Sam Mac showed erotic Thor fan art to a confused and baffled Tom Hiddleston, and a slow-motion video of the hosts running on Manly Beach, Baywatch-style, was played about five times.

Network Ten’s last foray into morning programming, Breakfast, went belly-up last year after failing to find a voice or an audience. Things are pretty grim at Wake Up right now, and while the network probably won’t abandon the show immediately, don’t be surprised if it’s not around this time next year. 

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Alasdair Duncan is an author, freelance writer and video game-lover who has had work published in Crikey, The Drum, The Brag, Beat, Rip It Up, The Music Network, Rave Magazine, AXN Cult and Star Observer.