Good Morning Britain

[JosiahStuart]

I fully agree about a revamp. The Big desk needs to go and the political Focus that the show has needs to be toned down a Hell of alot. The debate format needs to be toned down too.

These things worked well during the Piers era but I feel they're trying to replucate that with everyone they've had on since Piers left. I'm guessing that the big focus on debates/ Politics is part of the reason why there's still no replacement for Piers a year on. To me, every guest host that has been on so far has tried to be another Piers.

I think the show really needs to move away from the Piers era stuff ASAP to keep it alive (I.e: Less Debate Focused, Less Politics Focused).

The only reason they brought the big desk in was initially to comply with social distancing for COVID. I do agree that they have to tone down the debates, but with the world we live in; politics is always gonna be there.

[Aaron.TV]

I fully agree about a revamp. The Big desk needs to go and the political Focus that the show has needs to be toned down a Hell of alot. The debate format needs to be toned down too.

These things worked well during the Piers era but I feel they're trying to replucate that with everyone they've had on since Piers left. I'm guessing that the big focus on debates/ Politics is part of the reason why there's still no replacement for Piers a year on. To me, every guest host that has been on so far has tried to be another Piers.

I think the show really needs to move away from the Piers era stuff ASAP to keep it alive (I.e: Less Debate Focused, Less Politics Focused).

The only reason they brought the big desk in was initially to comply with social distancing for COVID.

It was confirmed at the time by Erron Gordon that very much wasn’t the case, it was partly to enable larger debates post-Covid. Given social distancing is gone from the other daytime shows, I do wonder if GMB’s persistence with it is partly down to the size of the desk, and not knowing quite how to arrange the presenters without the desk looking ridiculous.

I think they (GMB) actually *have* moved away from the Piers era. It’s only on here that we keep banging-on about it.

Piers’ association with GMB isn’t mentioned elsewhere in the media these days.

That ship has sailed.

They’ve moved away from the Piers era in terms of him being gone, but I’m not convinced the bosses have any idea where the format should go longer term, reflected in the growing number of random guest co-hosts. It’s a weird mix of the standard ITV Breakfast fare, but with a splash of convoluted, nonsensical debates.

IMO the best format of the show was early Piers days - I’d say early 2016 to 2018 ish. The first 15-30 minutes were genuinely entertaining, and the element of playing fast and loose with the running order just worked. Piers was given too much control after this point to my mind, and the show started to become a much nastier version of itself, eventually resulting in the Markle blowup.

If they can find someone who can put their own mark on things, without going as far or being as nasty as Piers became, that seems like a longer term format. I don’t personally see that in any of the guest hosts they’ve tried so far, all are essentially fairly bland ‘nice guys’, bar Richard Madeley.

[HarveyB]

They’ve moved away from the Piers era in terms of him being gone, but I’m not convinced the bosses have any idea where the format should go longer term, reflected in the growing number of random guest co-hosts. It’s a weird mix of the standard ITV Breakfast fare, but with a splash of convoluted, nonsensical debates.

I fully agree. And it's clear by just watching the show now that GMB bosses don't have a clue where to take the show. They need to make their mind up and Fast.

Get rid of the Big Desk, Tone down the huge focus on the nonsense Debates and find another permanent Male Host to replace Piers and have that host pathe their own way rather than make them try to be another Piers and then all their problems will be resolved

[KryptonITV]

I think regarding the programme during the past few weeks, the production team made a grave error of removing the news half hour. The programme needs to have the news hour reinstated, have two newsreaders between 6 and 7am and then two presenters between 7 and 9am. The current format is one that does not represent ITV Breakfast properly.

[HarveyB]

I think they (GMB) actually *have* moved away from the Piers era. It’s only on here that we keep banging-on about it.

Piers’ association with GMB isn’t mentioned elsewhere in the media these days.

That ship has sailed.

I disagree. Piers may have left GMB and his association with the show might not be brought up anymore but that doesn't mean that they've totally moved away from the Piers era.

The heavy focus on debates (which worked best during the Piers era) is still there and all the guest hosts are trying to be another Piers Morgan.

[CantGetIn]

GMB, if it ain't broke don't fix it. It took ITV ages to find a breakfast show to replace GMTV and I don't think anyone should move much beyond what they have.

If viewing figures are falling they need to get a new host with something to offer. A new shiny desk isn't going to cut it.

[L1]

Its easy to say debates have become a big part of the show due to Piers, but in reality debates are just a bigger part of live TV and radio shows are they not? GB News and Talk Radio/Talk TV all these stations popping up are a sign of this IMO, so a step back to old ITV Breakfast formats would be a bad move personally

[TJTSW]

The trouble with GMB debates/Discussions is they get shouty and don’t give the person they are interviewing time to respond before they interrupt them, I’m all out for discussions, but give the other person a chance to respond even if it’s not they want, I also find the segments a bit bleh, as as I watch on the hub, when they say now time for your local news I switch off as London isn’t my local news, they also waste a lot of time just jibbering on at the start of the show about nothing before going on into the main headline, then they are doing an interview with someone and it’s going well, then they say we have to cut it short as they are out of time ???

Just needs a regig & rethink

[DavidWhitfield]

The only reason they brought the big desk in was initially to comply with social distancing for COVID.

This simply isn't true.

Erron confirmed via Twitter that the idea behind the large, (strangely shaped) desk was to allow for large "debates" without having everyone squished around a desk only ever designed to accommodate three or four presenters, like this rather cramped-looking affair from 2019:



I can see the logic of having a larger desk in the above circumstance, though quite how often you'd actually have that many people all contributing concurrently live in the studio - irrespective of COVID and Piers' subsequent exit - I think is questionable.

[AJ]

I prefer that the format has settled somewhat - gone are the days of the annual refresh, and a new music bed this week just because the day ends with a 'y'.

Yeah, I know this is a pres forum and we live for that, but I want some news, an interesting topical debate/discussion and perhaps a bit of fluff whilst I eat my cornflakes, and GMB does that pretty well.

[Brekkie]

We don't see the ratings really nowadays now Piers doesn't gloat about the odd 1% increase but I'm guessing they've not moved much in either direction?

[HarveyB]

The trouble with GMB debates/Discussions is they get shouty and don’t give the person they are interviewing time to respond before they interrupt them, I’m all out for discussions, but give the other person a chance to respond even if it’s not they want, I also find the segments a bit bleh, as as I watch on the hub, when they say now time for your local news I switch off as London isn’t my local news, they also waste a lot of time just jibbering on at the start of the show about nothing before going on into the main headline, then they are doing an interview with someone and it’s going well, then they say we have to cut it short as they are out of time ???

Just needs a regig & rethink

I agree. The shouty debates where people didn't have time to respond was something that worked when Piers was actually on the show but since he quit it's gotten very ridiculous, It also doesn't help that the other Male Hosts (Bar Ben and Sean) are trying to be another Piers rather than carving out their own direction (i'm certain that GMB bosses have told all Guest Hosts to date that they want them to act like Piers).

It's clear that GMB want another Piers Morgan and they only way they are getting another Piers Morgan is if Piers himself decides to quit NewsCorp and go back to ITV (which is Highly Doubtful) so they have to stop getting their hosts to act like another Piers

[DavidWhitfield]

Just thinking out loud for a moment...

I rather like this 'Concert For Ukraine' graphic.



The bright yellow and blue has obviously been chosen in this case to match the colours of the Ukrainian flag but it puts me in mind of Good Morning America and looks really rather good together generally, I think. Fitting colour scheme for a morning news programme.

I think it would be quite nice to see this sort of brighter colour palette used on the programme in future updates in lieu of the more muted shades of navy/teal and 'custardy' yellowy orange we've been accustomed to since 2014.

Just saying.

[TJTSW]

I also notice which was a joy, that there were no competitions today, they get a bit tedious but was nice today there were none, didn’t watch the show yesterday so don’t know if this was the same yesterday, or whether it was for today so people so people could donate to the concert instead?!

[Brekkie]

If we're being fussy they're using the wrong shade of blue. It's more ITV 2022 than ITV 1998.