Anna Murray: TVNZ faces tough challenge to replace Breakfast's Daniel Faitaua

For the last few years, Daniel Faitaua's been smoothly delivering Breakfast's news and effortlessly tossing beautifully barbed comments at the show's various hosts. Photo / Supplied

COMMENT:

Any idiot can be a TV newsreader. Right?

You just look into a camera and read an autocue full of words that have more often than not been written by somebody else. I mean, how hard can it be?

The answer is: quite hard. It's just that the best newsreaders make it all look so easy.

They're the masters of multi-tasking in an often stressful environment, able to carry on coherently reading the news even while a producer feeds them information via their earpiece.

They're also very good at keeping their composure during inevitable technology hitches, last-minute changes, breaking news, and those moments when they have to relay details of the day's latest tragedy.

And they do all this knowing the audience is watching and largely judging the bulletin based on what they're wearing, ready to share their thoughts on exactly that via email or social media. (Because nothing winds up Sheryl from Dannevirke more than a newsreader wearing a Spring palette when they're more a Cool Winter.)

Once a newsreader manages to nail all of those things, they then need another set of skills to succeed in that most niche of news reading realms — breakfast television. Because on a show like Breakfast, where the serious news of the day goes hand-in-hand with a healthy dose of nonsense, newsreaders are expected to bring both a certain level of respectability to the headlines and some personality for the more light-hearted moments.

For years, Peter Williams did exactly that and was New Zealand's gold standard breakfast TV newsreader. The country loved P-Willy and when his time on Breakfast came to an end, many of us didn't think the show could do much better with its news desk.

But then along came Daniel Faitaua.

Just like Ron Burgundy, he has a voice that would make a wolverine purr, and for the past few years he's been smoothly delivering Breakfast's news and effortlessly tossing beautifully barbed comments at the show's various hosts.

He came back on the show this year and told his colleagues he hadn't missed them at all over the Christmas break, for example. He famously admitted to telling someone else's rowdy kids to "bugger off" in a restaurant. He judged a special Breakfast/My Kitchen Rules crossover and told Jack Tame and Brodie Kane that tasting their dessert "felt like the last day of my life". Viewers loved him.

But now he's packing up his family and moving to London to take over TVNZ's coveted Europe correspondent role, which begs the question: Who has the goods to replace him and fit in alongside Hayley Holt, John Campbell and Matty McLean?

Daniel Faitaua (L), pictured with his Breakfast colleagues Hayley Holt, John Campbell and Matty McLean, is leaving to take up the role of TVNZ Europe correspondent. Photo / Supplied

Of Breakfast's current regular news presenter stand-ins, Melissa Stokes and Jenny-May Clarkson are the strongest candidates. Each of them has been with TVNZ for years and have the experience and the personality to easily take over the job permanently.

Then there are 1 News reporters Chris Chang or Sam Kelway, who could also be good options. Both are former Breakfast reporters and have demonstrated the much-needed personality to go along with their news chops. (Kelway also has immaculate newsreader hair, if such things are still important to the Breakfast bosses.)

Should TVNZ decide to look beyond its company's walls for a replacement and go for something completely out of left field, Kamahl Santamaria could be an outside chance.

The former TV3 journalist has been away from New Zealand for years, building a successful presenting career at Al Jazeera. He once said John Campbell was the first person to greet him at the TV3 newsroom way back in 1998 — perhaps he might be ready to return to local screens to sit alongside Campbell once more?

But if Santamaria is too serious a presenter to take up the Breakfast mantle (likely), the network might also look at their competition across town for more talent to add to their steadily growing pile of former MediaWorks employees.

Rather than trying to poach Amanda Gillies in a straight morning telly swap, perhaps they could cast their net for The Project's Kanoa Lloyd. Because if John Campbell can take a circuitous route from Three's 7pm slot to TVNZ's Breakfast, then why can't Lloyd take a more direct path?

With Faitaua preparing to leave Breakfast in a matter of weeks, viewers won't have to wait too long to find out who his replacement will be. But until then, there's really only one certainty: whoever does get the nod will have a tough act to follow.