Wake Up (TV program)

Wake Up is an Australian breakfast television program produced by Network Ten. The show was hosted by Natarsha Belling and James Mathison and aired weekday mornings from 6.30am to 8.30am, immediately prior to Ten's morning talk show Studio 10.^[1] Wake Up, launched on Monday 4 November 2013, was presented from Queenscliff Surf Club at Manly Beach in Sydney, with Nuala Hafner presenting national news updates from a glass studio at Federation Square in Melbourne.^[1] . The program was cancelled on Wednesday 21 May 2014 due to poor ratings and ended two days later.^[2]

Presenters

Reporters and contributors

Natasha Exelby was originally a co-host with Natarsha Belling and James Mathison, but was dropped from the show less than three weeks after its launch.^[3]

News updates were broadcast from the Melbourne Visitor Centre in Federation Square, Melbourne.

Ratings and reception

Following its first show, Wake Up was considered in some quarters as a vast improvement of its predecessor Breakfast. However, its first show averaged only 52,000 viewers nationally.^[4] Inside a brief period, the programme lost around half of its audience share and rated by November 2013 lower than Breakfast, the show Ten axed the year before because of low ratings.^[5]

Controversy

On 13 May 2014, the morning after the 2014 Federal budget, Wake Up invited Prime Minister Tony Abbott to take part in an on-air forum involving members of the public.

One of the participants involved was 85 year-old Brisbane pensioner Vilma Ward. Mrs. Ward began to ambush Abbott live on air telling him I've never heard such rubbish in all my life referring to his plan to rise the pension age and calling him a "comedian". It later emerged that Ward had strong links with the Australian Labor Party and had appeared in an election campaign brochure. Network Ten admitted they were not aware of Mrs. Ward's links prior to the segment.^[6]

References