Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Goodbye, Good Morning

Say goodbye to Good Morning.
Television New Zealand is finally axing its long-running (and these days, painful!) morning show.
The TV One slot, which has gradually shrunk to just an hour on weekdays at 9am, will die an overdue death by the end of December.
The ship-of-fools features a varying cast including Jeanette Thomas, Matai Smith and Matt Gibb, and has been home to other well-known faces over the years such as Mary Lambie, Kerry Smith, bizarre metrosexual Brendon Pongia and Steve Gray. [Aaahhhhhh, how can we forget that OTT presenter who led the nation in embarrassing exercise routines in oversized tracksuits...? And also how can we forget his departure, after the bisexual was told by TVNZ bosses to "tone down" his gayness...? Remember the 15-minute mini-drama? I'm still trying to figure out the "tone down" comment!]
Then of course there was Sarah Bradley, ditched at the end of 2011. In my mind, that was when TVNZ crossed the Rubicon, and should have quietly rolled the show up instead of flogging a dieing horse for another four years. Sarah was the show - without her, it was just more drivel-coated advertising-laden pap. Pleased to see that Sarah's gone on to better things...but that's another story.
Good Morning has been on NZ TV screens since 1996. TVNZ's director of content Jeff Latch says it's "nearing the end of its lifecycle and TVNZ has chosen to focus its local content investment in prime time programming." No word yet on a replacement but "it will likely be some form of international lifestyle content".
Hey, here's something novel: why not buy in more cooking crap, renovation rigmarole or tedious tired travel talk?
The ship-of-fools sails again!

UPDATE: 02 October 2015 - TVNZ swings the cost-cutting axe again. Who will be killed off next - Peter Williams? Or Bernadine Oliver-Kerby?

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