Breakfast (New Zealand TV programme)

Breakfast (also referred to as TVNZ Breakfast) is a New Zealand morning 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. It is currently presented by Jenny-May Clarkson, Daniel Faitaua, Anna Burns-Francis and Chris Chang.

Breakfast
Breakfast Intertitle
Genre	News program
Presented by	Jenny-May Clarkson Anna Burns-Francis Chris Chang Daniel Faitaua
Country of origin	New Zealand
Original language	English
Production
Running time	180 Minutes
Original release
Network	TVNZ 1
Release	11 August 1997 (1997-08-11) – present
Related
1 News

History

Breakfast began airing on 11 August 1997 on TV One and was preceded by Telstra Business, an early morning programme devoted to business and finance. The original presenters were Susan Wood and Mike Hosking, with Liz Gunn as newsreader and Michael Wilson as presenter of Telstra Business.

Before Breakfast came along, breakfast television was introduced to Channel 2 in November 1989 with an early morning news service called Breakfast News with Tom Bradley as anchor and Penelope Barr as weather presenter. Breakfast News – which consisted of overnight stories, a business news summary and weather forecasts – aired on Channel 2 initially as a half hour bulletin at 7am with a five-minute news and weather update at 8am.

In 1990, the format of Breakfast News was changed to five-minute bulletins at 7am, 7.30am, 8am and 8.30am (during Channel 2's early morning programming for children) with former Top Half presenter John Hawkesby taking over as anchor. By August, John Hawkesby replaced Lindsay Perigo as co-anchor of the late night edition of One Network News and Breakfast News was axed by TVNZ.

When Breakfast began, its dominance was virtually unchallenged by the other networks until 2007, 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.

Following Hosking's tenure, Breakfast was dominated by host Paul Henry's outspoken nature for several years, until he resigned following a series of on-air racist comments in October 2010.^[1] Years later, Henry's self-titled breakfast show on TV3 caused a significant increase in Breakfast's competition from 2015. This resulted in Breakfast's relaunch in September 2016, with a new presenting line-up led by Hilary Barry and Jack Tame.^[2] Barry was moved to Seven Sharp from 2018, and was replaced on Breakfast by Hayley Holt. Holt resigned from the Green Party, who she had represented at the 2017 New Zealand general election, in order to take up the position.^[3] Tame remained on Breakfast until 2019, when he became the presenter of Q+A and was replaced by veteran New Zealand broadcaster John Campbell, who had recently joined TVNZ.^[4]

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 Jenny-May Clarkson (the show's regular newsreader), Hadyn Jones and Anna Burns-Francis taking over for the remaining episodes. Holt remained in self-isolation due to her pregnancy, while Matty 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. Holt left the show permanently in August, with Clarkson taking over her role.^[5] Indira Stewart subsequently joined the team as newsreader.^[6] During Auckland's lockdown period between 18 August and 12 November 2021, the two presenting teams were Campbell, Stewart and Stokes, and Clarkson, McLean and Jenny Suo.

On 31 January 2022, a new look for Breakfast was unveiled. This included a new augmented reality studio set and new graphics. McLean and Stewart's presenting roles were also increased.^[7] Campbell left the show in April to become TVNZ's special correspondent, and was briefly replaced by Kamahl Santamaria, who had previously presented for Al Jazeera English for 16 years.^[8]

In May 2022, Breakfast became the focus of media attention when Santamaria resigned from TVNZ after a month at the station. Santamaria's departure was initially described to his colleagues and the media as a "family emergency" or "personal matter", though the day after his resignation was announced it emerged that a female colleague had made a complaint against him over inappropriate behaviour. After further allegations of harassment against Santamaria during his time at Al Jazeera were reported, a review of TVNZ's hiring process was undertaken.^[9] Upon the review's completion in July 2022, TVNZ's head of news and current affairs, Paul Yurisich, who had hired Santamaria without thorough consultation, also resigned from his position.^[10]

In January 2023, TVNZ announced that New York Correspondent Anna Burns-Francis and sports presenter and former midday presenter Chris Chang would join the team in 2023 after the announcement that Indira Stewart was leaving to become a in-depth multimedia reporter for 1 News. However, she would present the midday bulletin on Fridays with Chang presenting Monday to Thursday.

In January 2024, TVNZ announced that former Europe Correspondant Daniel Faitaua would return to the Breakfast team in 2024, replacing Matty McLean who departed the show in December 2023.

Presenters

Dates	Presenters
1997–2021 format	Anchor/s		News	Weather
1997–1999	Mike Hosking[11]	Susan Wood[11]	Does not appear
2000		Alison Mau[11]
2001		Liz Gunn[11]
2002		Kate Hawkesby[11]	Neil Waka[12]	Does not appear
2003			Peter Williams[13]
January 2004 – August 2004	Alison Mau[11]	Does not appear
August 2004 – December 2004		Paul Henry[11]
January 2005 – July 2007	Kay Gregory
August 2007 – October 2010	Pippa Wetzell[14]			Tāmati Coffey[14]
October 2010 – December 2010		Greg Boyed
		Rawdon Christie[15]
January 2011 – May 2012	Corin Dann[16]	Petra Bagust[16]
May 2012 – December 2012	Rawdon Christie[17]
January 2013 – December 2013		Toni Street[18]		Sam Wallace
January 2014 – September 2015		Alison Pugh[19][20]
September 2015 – September 2016		Nadine Chalmers-Ross[21]
September 2016 – December 2016	Hilary Barry[2]	Jack Tame[2]	Daniel Faitaua[22]
2017				Matty McLean
January 2018 – April 2019	Hayley Holt[3]
April 2019 – August 2019		John Campbell[4]
September 2019 – August 2020			Jenny-May Clarkson[23]
August 2020 – December 2021	Jenny-May Clarkson[5]		Indira Stewart
Present format	Anchor/s			News
January 2022 – April 2022	Jenny-May Clarkson[7]	Matty McLean[7]	John Campbell[7]	Indira Stewart[7]
April 2022 – May 2022			Kamahl Santamaria[8][24]
May 2022 – December 2022			Does not appear
January 2023 – December 2023			Anna Burns-Francis[25]	Chris Chang[25]
January 2024-present		Daniel Faitaua

Back-up presenters

• Alison Mau (2008–2010)^[26]
• Rawdon Christie (2011–2012)
• Nadine Chalmers-Ross (2012–2015)
• Melissa Stokes (2015–2023)
• Pippa Wetzell (2020)
• Haydn Jones (2020)
• Anna Burns-Francis (2020)
• Jenny Suo (2021)

Reporters

Breakfast reporters appear in live crosses throughout the three hour broadcast, and during news bulletins.

Name	Role	Bureau
Larissa Howie	Reporter	Auckland
Wilson Longhurst	Reporter	Auckland
Grace Thomas	Foreign producer	Auckland
Zion Dayal	Sports producer	Auckland
Abbey Wakefield	Reporter	Wellington
Digby Werthmuller	Reporter	Christchurch

Saturday Breakfast

Main article: 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

Short news and sports updates are presented every half hour (6am, 6.30am, 7am, 7.30am, 8am and 8.30am) and followed by a weather forecast. Mostly, the programme has interviews with newsmakers or TVNZ reporters on the important headlines of the day. The first hour of the programme, from 6am, is usually devoted to news coverage 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".^[27]

References

1. Peacock, Colin (presenter) (5 June 2022). Santamaria strife echoes past misconduct mess at TVNZ (Radio). Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
2. "Jack Tame and Hilary Barry confirmed for TVNZ Breakfast". Stuff (website). 18 August 2016. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
3. McConnell, Glenn (15 January 2018). "Hilary Barry moves to Seven Sharp, replaced on Breakfast by Hayley Holt". Stuff. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
4. McConnell, Glenn (18 April 2019). "John Campbell to replace Jack Tame on Breakfast, as Tame takes over Q&A". Stuff. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
5. "TVNZ Breakfast shakeup: Hayley Holt leaves Breakfast, Jenny-May Clarkson moves into presenting role". New Zealand Herald. 11 August 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
6. "RNZ's Indira Stewart joins TVNZ's Breakfast as news presenter". Stuff. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
7. Ward, Tara (2 February 2022). "Breakfast's new set is absolutely wild, and I love it". The Spinoff. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
8. "John Campbell to leave Breakfast, become TVNZ chief correspondent". 1 News. 5 April 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
9. Hyde, Chris (3 June 2022). "Kamahl Santamaria's Breakfast resignation: What happened and why does it matter?". Stuff. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
10. "TVNZ head of news and current affairs Paul Yurisich resigns". Radio New Zealand. 27 July 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
11. "A complete history of TVNZ Breakfast hosts". The New Zealand Herald. 7 July 2016. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
12. "TVNZ Confirms News And Current Affairs Structure". Scoop.co.nz. 17 January 2002. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
13. "Breakfast's 'sad week' begins". NZ Herald. 26 August 2016. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
14. "Pippa for Breakfast - Entertainment News". NZ Herald. 31 July 2023. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
15. "Henry's a tough act to follow". Mountain Scene. 14 October 2010. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
16. "TVNZ announces new hosts for Breakfast". The Spy Report. Media Spy. 18 December 2010. Archived from the original on 22 December 2010.
17. "Rawdon Christie joins Breakfast". The Dominion Post. 3 April 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2012.
18. "The Diary: New taste for Breakfast". The New Zealand Herald. 18 October 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
19. "Ali Pugh named new Breakfast co-host". TVNZ.co.nz. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
20. "Summer Diary: Seven Sharp delays return to air". The New Zealand Herald. 3 January 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
21. "Nadine Chalmers-Ross returns to TVNZ's Breakfast as Alison Pugh leaves". Stuff (website). 18 September 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
22. "Through tears, departing Breakfast host Daniel Faitaua says goodbye and pays tribute to his dying brother". 1 News. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
23. "Jenny-May Clarkson announced as Breakfast newsreader". NZ Herald. 22 August 2019. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
24. "Kamahl Santamaria quits Breakfast a month into the job". The Spinoff. 28 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
25. "Two new faces joining Breakfast line-up in 2023". 1 News. 10 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
26. "Alison Mau is back on Breakfast". NZ Herald. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
27. "Bravo Awards". New Zealand Skeptics. Retrieved 7 November 2016.