History
The history of Sunrise can be traced back to at least 17 January 1991 when 11AM news presenter Darren McDonald began presenting an early morning Seven News – Sunrise Edition bulletin prior to hostilities breaking out during the Gulf War.
In 1996, Seven introduced a one hour weekday bulletin called Sunrise News, later renamed Sunrise. Seven recruited Chris Bath from NBN Television to present the bulletin alongside Peter Ford. Ford moved to other presenting roles in 1996, and was replaced by finance editor David Koch. In 1997, Chris Bath was transferred to Seven's 10.30pm News and was replaced by Melissa Doyle.In 1998 Sunrise was presented by Melissa Doyle and Nick McArdle Seven launched a Sunday bulletin hosted by Stan Grant, entitled Sunday Sunrise, in 1997. Weekday Sunrise was cancelled in 1999, replaced by children's program The Big Breakfast. Seven maintained half-hourly news updates during The Big Breakfast, and their Sunday bulletin was not affected by the axing.
During the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Andrew Daddo and Johanna Griggs presented Olympic Sunrise from a leased apartment near Lavender Bay in Sydney which provided the Harbour Bridge and Opera House as waterside backdrops.
In 2000, the program was replaced by a new version of Sunrise hosted by Georgie Gardner and Mark Beretta and music video program AMV.
Other temporary Sunrise hosts up until this time include Anne Fulwood (who was filling in for Georgie Gardner at the time of the program's end), Leigh Hatcher (now host of breakfast bulletin First Edition on Sky News Australia) and Nick McArdle (previously weekend sport presenter, Seven News Sydney).
In March 2002, Seven revamped their breakfast television schedule with Seven Early News at 6:00 a.m., hosted by Chris Reason (and only lasted around one week), and a new version of Sunrise from 6:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., hosted by Reason and Melissa Doyle. Sunrise from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. began in February the same year. David Koch was brought in to present the finance reports. In October of that year, Reason discovered he had another cancerous tumour behind his kidney and had to resign from his position. Four years earlier he had undergone treatment for another growth.
Koch was appointed temporary presenter, a position later made permanent. Sunrise was yet again revamped soon after Koch's appointment, focusing less on hard news and became more family friendly. The show, along with its rival Today on Nine, have become more tabloid focused. This has boosted ratings by moving people away from morning radio and the newspaper to the TV.
In 2003, the show began to pick up ratings, and appointed Natalie Barr to present the news updates, followed by the appointment of former Network Ten journalist Grant Denyer to present weather reports, then the appointment of Mark Beretta, who was brought in to present sports updates. On 30 August 2004, Sunrise, Seven News Sydney and Seven Morning News moved from their studios in Epping to the new Seven News centre at Martin Place.
On 29 January 2007 Sunrise had a complete makeover with changes to the set and on-screen graphics. Due to continued viewer feedback, the Sunrise set changed again on 10 June 2007; specifically, the new set includes more of the city into its shots by the installation of smart glass. This glass, similar to that on the new Boeing 787 allows for the transparency of the glass to be adjusted, ranging from clear, to partially transparent to completely opaque, showing as a solid blue. These changes have proved useful in shielding viewers from the actions of some passers by, notably, cast members of the ABC show The Chaser's War on Everything. The set was also modified so The Morning Show's set could fit into the Martin Place current affairs studio. In October 2009, it was announced that at the start of 2010, Sunrise will receive a brand new set, format, graphics and logo on 25 January 2010.
In April 2010, Sunrise added a feature show that shows a selection of highlights from the previous day’s (or in the case of Monday, Friday's) Sunrise; the show is known as Sunrise Extra. Sunrise Extra airs at 5am each weekday morning prior to Seven Early News.
In 2011, there was much speculation that Melissa Doyle would be leaving the show to present Today Tonight and that David Koch may be moved to a prime-time position. However, Doyle continued with the show for her tenth consecutive year in 2012, as did Koch.
In February 2012 Sunrise announced that Koch would be co-hosting live from Antarctica. Sunrise is claiming the live broadcast is an Aussie TV first, and while there was a single cross from David Base during 1988′s landmark Australia Live celebrations, it’s fair to say nothing of this magnitude has been attempted before. This special edition did not affect the show's ratings.
On 29 February 2012, Sunrise celebrated its 10th anniversary with Mel & Kochie. Doyle is the only original presenter remaining from the March 2002 launch; at the time, Chris Reason was her co-host (he took leave in late 2002 to fight cancer, prompting the initial then-temporary appointment of Koch) and David Koch was the finance analyst. Koch started presenting Sunrise on a permanent basis from 4 October 2002.
Read more about this topic: Sunrise (TV Program)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)