Network Ten has announced Monday 4 November as the launch date for its new morning line-up, the bold initiative from former Sunrise producer Adam Boland.
The schedule starts at 5.30am with an early edition of Ten Eyewitness News presented by Matt Doran, Magdalena Roze and Scott Mackinnon.
The new breakfast program Wake Up, hosted by James Mathison, Natarsha Belling and Natasha Exelby kicks off at 6.30am from custom-built beachfront studios at Surf City in the Sydney suburb of Manly. Nuala Hafner will present local news updates for each state from a studio located at Federation Square in Melbourne’s CBD.
Sam Mac and US correspondent Maude Garrett will be additional contributors to the program.
Studio 10 — a panel show with Ita Buttrose, Joe Hildebrand, Jessica Rowe and Sarah Harris in front of an audience at Ten’s Pyrmont studios in Sydney — will follow at 8.30am. At 10.30am the discussion continues with Studio 10 You, a health and lifestyle spin-off featuring clinical psychologist and author Jo Lamble (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and Dr Andrew Rochford (Tuesday and Thursday).
Other contributors to Studio 10 include Jonathan Coleman and showbiz reporters Angela Bishop and Craig Bennett.
Studio 10 executive producer Rob McKnight, formerly of the Nine Network, said the program will offer a lively mix of conversation with the added enthusiasm of a studio audience:
“This is one of the best teams on television. From our superstar panel to the best experts in the business, Studio 10 will be a must-watch destination in the morning. Studio 10 will offer a true alternative with great conversation and a fantastic mix of segments.
“The live studio audience changes everything. They add an air of excitement you simply can’t replicate.”
Adam Boland, who joined Ten as Director of Morning Television back in March, said both Wake Up and Studio 10 promise to be very different alternatives to their rivals:
“We are incredibly proud to have created something genuinely different. These two shows are different from each other and more importantly, different from their competitors. We’re confident that mornings will never be the same.”
The morning wraps up with another edition of Ten Eyewitness News, again with Matt Doran, Magdalena Roze and Scott Mackinnon, from 11am.
The launch of the new schedule is the culmination of many months of planning, speculation and promotion — including the Wake Up team recently touring cities around Australia to spread the word that “change is coming”.
Wake Up and Studio 10 will have a tough task ahead of them. The new programs come into a timeslot which Ten has filled with low-rent re-runs, US talk shows and children’s shows for the past twelve months — and are up against tough competition from well established morning programs on Seven, Nine and ABC.
