TV: Is breakfast telly worth the effort?

So you emerge from under the duvet for that early morning lecture, woozy or not, depending on the night before. And you have a choice to make, while making or, quite possibly burning, some toast or trying to get out the Weetabix without it breaking in to bits.

Radio or TV?

Most of us opt for TV, as it gives us more choice at the touch of a button, no need to re tune the wireless in your half asleep stumble. But what do you watch?

Do you opt for Channel 4 and its re-runs of the good old faithful Friends, Scrubs or Will and Grace? Despite having seen every episode at least 10 times. Or do you tune in to ITV or BBC for a fix of what’s going on outside your door?

If like me, you have a bit of a thing for anything current and newsworthy, you’ll have to make yet another decision when you get to this point; Daybreak, BBC Breakfast or good old Eamonn on Sky’s Sunrise?

Gone are the days when GMTV was the only option, with its easy-on-the-eye presenters (See: Ben Shepard, not Fiona Philips for more information) and must-see rows with society’s enemies i.e. the Prime Minister, Chancellor or Heather Mills. No more do we have Penny Smith offering witty comebacks to never-quite-achieved-anything since sporting ace Andrew Castle.

Instead we are faced with the (frightening) face that critics love to hate, of Adrian Chiles alongside the ever-perky Christine Bleakly. Who, let’s face it, most of us turn green with envy at the thought of.

Premiership footballer fiancé? Check

Figure and face of a supermodel? Check

Wardrobe that would put Topshop Oxford St to shame? Check

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Sitting beside the hunk that is Chiles every morning? Oh erm...

Dan Lobb the sports man may be a bit of a dish, even more so after stripping off for one of the Sunday magazine supplements, but how can we feel a show that offers ‘something cool before school’ or even ‘top 5 weird stories of the day’ (‘where you can even choose your favourite!’) is appropriate or relevant to anyone who isn’t a ten-year-old boy or a forty-five-year-old housewife?

So we turn to the alternatives. BBC breakfast, which if compared to our choice of foods at this time of the morning, is more similar to a form of muesli (definitely NO raisins or almonds) rather than the chocolate pancakes with hundreds and thousands of Daybreak. Putting on my technical hat, the layout of the studio is nothing if not bland, looking like an instalment of regional news from 1986, rather than an international, exciting, morning breakfast show. Also, we never really get any closer than about half a mile away from a guests face on camera.

The one bonus it does have over its animated cousin on ITV is that it gives us the news.

It gives us the news real good.

Headlines at regular timeslots in the hour and guests with informed and well thought arguments. We won’t mention celebs, as BBC Breakfast can be much like your Nan in that respect... still living in the past and saying anything with a beat on or rapping is just ‘noise’.

So this leaves Sky Sunrise, the money men of TV. The P Diddy of tellyland, the Arab Chairmen of the industry. With a snazzy, graphic-rich/coma-inducing set and more interactive areas than you can shake your iPad at, Sunrise has it all. It even features that little known American choice of Anchors, the uncle and gorgeous niece pairing, with Eamonn and Charlotte.

Sunrise is more closely related to a 24 hour news channel than our other alternatives, so it is news heavy and very up to the minute. And, unlike the other 24 hour channels, Sky even manages to remember that it’s audience does spread outside25-40 year old males in SW1 in London, and even features the odd celeb appearance and snippet Hollywood gossip.

Perfect right? Unless you happen to have had a late night, in which case the pace of the programme and the exciting punchy graphics may just push you over the edge.

So what should you do? Scrubs, Daybreak, BBC Breakfast or Sunrise?

Honestly?

Find the snooze button and get another 15 minutes kip... who needs choices like this at 8 in the morning?

TV: Is breakfast telly worth the effort?

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