KEY POINTS:
The world of breakfast television dawned yesterday on TV3, with its news and magazine show, Sunrise (weekdays, 6.30am) determined to give the impression this is telly which is out, about and doing.
It can't be easy starting a new, two-hour early morning show the week that daylight saving kicks in but hosts James Coleman and Carly Flynn showed no ill-effects from the rude hour at which they must have been awakened. The eyes were bright, the tails bushy, the energy levels high, but thankfully not overwhelming throughout their debut dawn parade.
You could hear the relief to be on air at last. This is a present we've been holding for months, they gushed, as the much-vaunted show, piggy-backing on the channel's rugby World Cup coverage, finally sailed above the horizon of all that expectation. The gush was nicely tempered with a bit of self-deprecation: "This is our gift to you, both of you," said Coleman. "Hello mum and dad," added Flynn.
You can't have a tandem act without all that blather about instant rapport from their promoters. The pair certainly gave the ad lib banter their best shot but they have a way to go before their camaraderie sounds convincing.
Perhaps it was the darkness outside, and the usual early morning crankiness on the part of this viewer, but all that waffling about auspicious thunderclaps in the night and that mucking round with All Blacks figurines came across as in the category called lights on, nobody home.
The Sunrise set is easy on the eyes, its cheerful blue and gold colours, together with the name of the programme, brings to mind a brand of orange juice or dried fruit and seems to say, "yes, it's sugary, but natural". The time and weather in the bottom right hand corner of the screen are handy, the news headlines rolling across the bottom, distracting and a bit small to be useful.
The show delivers news headlines, read by the no-nonsense Sacha McNeil, every half hour. Sports host Rod Cheeseman is easily the most comfortable of the four presenters perched so perkily on their seats.
Poor reporter Ali Ikram got sent out to the wharves for a live cross on the Ports of Auckland workers' strike where, rather predictably round 6.40am, not much was happening. The 7am blockade was going to go on at 7am, we learned. Appearing equally marooned was weather guy Josh Heslop, stuck inexplicably out on a dark, nondescript inner-city street in Auckland for the duration.
Back in the studio the show progressed through its magazine and lifestyle bits, most of which were too short to make much impact. The panel discussion promised us surprises but featured only old rent-a-mouth Bill Ralston, back in his natural habitat of TV3, and the channel's own Jaquie Brown for a less than stunning whiz through topics such as police guns versus tasers.
The most off-putting part, the orgy of well-wishing from the channel's stars and the congratulatory feedback from the punters, was hopefully premiere self-indulgence. Hopefully, too, as the show settles in, it will be brave enough to balance out all that not-too-heavy with a bit of the not-too-lite.
* Sunrise, TV3, 6.30am weekdays
