May the best idea win for breakfast viewing
When it comes to filling 35 hours of live TV each week, the best idea always wins says Sunrise’s Michael Pell. 
One of the most common questions I get asked is how on earth we fill three hours of live TV each day on Sunrise. That’s 15 hours a week. Add on Weekend Sunrise and it’s 20 hours a week. Throw in Sunrise Extra and The Morning Show and our production unit generates 35 hours of live television in a week.
Our ratings get knocked around by lifestyle factors more than most timeslots: school holidays, public holidays, traffic, cold mornings, dark mornings… depending on the target demographic, those variables can have a huge impact on the figures. The hosts are also a big consideration when audiences make their choice in the morning.
Michael, you are not filling three hours a day – you are filling about two and a quarter hours once advertising time is taken out. Then take out news (provided by the newsroom) – another 20 minutes perhaps? So it’s less than two hours of actual keep-the-viewer-connected content (I’m happy to be corrected on the actual figures).
This is not a criticism – I know how hard it is to fill that amount of time daily, but there are hours and there are television hours. Different things.
By the way, we should never underestimate the importance of promoting the content. You can have the best stuff in the world, but if no one knows about it…
We know how you fill 35 hours of content a week! You get 30 hours of infomercials to fill up the airtime on pointess products we don’t care about and don’t want with wooden performing ‘presenters’ who try to sell us the crap and try and convince us it’s the best crap in the world…
Technically Michael does have three hours to fill every day – Sunrise needs to be attractive so people want to advertise on the show as well. As an executive producer – you do more than just worry about content. There are many other balls you have to juggle as well.
No mention of the thousands of hard working PR ‘flacks’ flinging ideas and content at TV Producers everyday. 😉
That said, I would rather be a crime scene cleaner, than have the incredibly difficult task of filling that much TV. Well done.