ITV planning to turn Daybreak 'back into GMTV'

ITV are hoping a plan to ‘recapture GMTV’s warmth’ will helping struggling Daybreak turn around its fortunes.

“It’s back to basics time. The feeling is it needs to go back to the GMTV format of the warm tones. It’s been on air nearly a year and still can’t pull in the numbers we thought it would.” – An “insider” quoted in The Sun.

Daybreak launched on ITV last September with much fanfare as the broadcaster ditched GMTV believing the brand had been tainted by the premium phone-in scandals. Despite luring over Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley to front the breakfast programme Daybreak has struggled in the ratings since its launch and is way behind its rivals Breakfast on BBC One.

Since Daybreak hit the air there have been numerous reports of revamps and axings and the latest reports claim that ITV are hoping to revamp the format into a GMTV style in order to try and lure some viewers back to the network. GMTV launched in January 1993 with a failed trendy format. Three months in and it revamped itself into a clone of its predicessor TV-am which had taken to the air in February 1983.

Adam Crozier, chief executive of ITV, said “Daybreak is the brand and the name, I don’t think that’s the issue”. The show is currently looking for a new editor after Ian Rumsey stepped down less than a year in the role. Last week it was revealed that Adrian Chiles would drop a Daybreak a week – cutting back his presenting duties. The most likely reason is the forthcoming new football season as Chiles fronts the broadcasters football coverage as part of his deal with ITV.