Breakfast is a New Zealandmorning news and talk show airing weekday mornings on TVNZ 1, produced by 1 News. Debuting on 11 August 1997, it was the first of its genre in New Zealand. It contains a mixture of breaking news, news, sport, weather and feature items. Originally a two-hour programme, it was expanded to three hours in 2012.
History
Breakfast began airing on 11 August 1997. The programme's dominance was virtually unchallenged by the other networks until 2008, when TV3 launched Sunrise. Sunrise struggled against Breakfast in the ratings until Sunrise went off air because of financial issues in April 2010, leaving Breakfast as the only morning news and talk show in New Zealand, until TV3 launched their second attempt at a morning news programme, Firstline, in 2011. Firstline was cancelled in April 2015, and replaced by Paul Henry, which caused a significant increase in Breakfast's competition. This caused the changes to the presenters in September 2016.
Between 23 March and 8 May 2020, the show was hosted by two rotating teams of three presenters due to the public health regulations around the COVID-19 pandemic. Campbell hosted with Pippa Wetzell and Melissa Stokes on Mondays and Tuesdays, with Clarkson, Hadyn Jones and Anna Burns-Francis taking over for the remaining episodes. Holt remained in self-isolation due to her pregnancy, while McLean temporarily moved to present the weather for 1 News at 6pm. From 11 May the regular daily presenters returned, with Clarkson continuing as a main co-presenter until 2 June in Holt's absence.
''Saturday Breakfast''
On 3 September 2011, TVNZ launched Saturday Breakfast, which aired between 7 am and 9 am each Saturday. The programme was axed at the end of 2012 due to low viewership.
Format
Ten minutes of news, sport and weather is presented every half-hour between 6:00 and 8:30, followed by the weather bulletin. Mostly, the programme has interviews with newsmakers or TVNZ reporters on the day's headlines. The first hour of the programme is devoted to news stories, and the rest of the programme has entertainment or special interest segments.
Awards
In 2014, TVNZ was awarded a Bravo award by the New Zealand Skeptics for coverage of the "dangers of Miracle Mineral Solution." And for their comment that MMS "is not a miracle cure for anything".
