MEDIAWATCH: John Campbell leaving Breakfast – Winners, Losers & Predictions
John has left TVNZ Breakfast and the morning TV won’t ever be the same again.
WINNERS:
John Campbell: Despite my black splinter of a jaded and bitter heart, John Campbell’s enthusiasm as a broadcaster, his mastery of the issues at hand and his decency mark him out to be the greatest cultural treasures we have. He works to make issues relevant to a public broadcasting audience in a way no other journalist is capable of and his brilliance has the potential to lift everyone who works alongside him. He has showcased his ridiculous talent and made NZ a better place in the process.
NZ Fourth Estate Journalism: Moving him into a new role where he will be able to do the Fourth Estate Journalism and investigative specials this country is screaming out for will do more to hold the powerful to account than the entire $55million NZ on Air is pumping into mainstream media.
Tova O’Brien: Because Breakfast TVNZ is nothing without John and because the AM Show is going through some weird Australian TV make over into irrelevance, Tova is the biggest winner here as new audiences go looking for new Breakfast news.
LOSERS:
AM Show: No one is sure what the AM Show is anymore. The best reason to watch, Ryan, has been taken off question duty which is a shame because his skill is asking a reply question based on the answer and you get real insight, Melissa is more just a good old fashioned argument kind of journalist. No insight, barely a heard word over the cross talking but sometimes you don’t want an answer ion the morning, sometimes you just want an argument and Melissa is great for that. It’s a show you wake up angry to. This should be the moment AM Show shines but because it’s been refit as a Womens magazine show, it still isn’t sure what show it is, and neither will the viewers.
TVNZ Breakfast: Kamahl Santamaria is a far more Fourth Estate Journalist asking big questions of powerful people, I think he’ll find the woke stuff and feelings all very twee and gauche. Without John the rest of the Breakfast show quickly becomes unbearable.
PREDICTIONS:
I think the advertisers of both TVNZ Breakfast and AM Show are clearly and obviously chasing a female consumer audience for the benefit of the advertisers and this has led to TVNZs set now looking like a middle class kindergarten with yoga, vegan, mindfulness options (alongside teachers who militantly correct te reo pronunciation and demand pronouns) while The AM Show just has Ryan’s balls pickled in a jar next to the living wall and laid back couches.
I watch AM Show and Breakfast to see Ryan and John do hard interviews with powerful people, but apparently that’s too much testosterone in the morning for the new target demos so B team on both shows get to share the interviews now, and sadly are usually pretty hopeless.
I mean, bless Matty, but he’s the weather host and a prince of lite weight entertainment. What insight is Matty going to give me on geopolitics I don’t already know?
Same with the AM Show, it’s like the female co-hosts can feel the viewers disappointment that they are asking the questions and not Ryan.
The AM Show’s new weather host just makes me sad.
So very sad.
He’s trying so hard.
The move from world famous tic tocker (or whatever it was he was on social media) to hosting live TV is an enormous cavern that we can all hide our cringing at his awkwardness inside.
Like Godzilla’s holiday bach of shame.
It’s just so painful.
Why? Why is he being forced to do something he’s so uncomfortable doing?
Why am I being forced to sit through this in the morning? It’s like a sour milk smoothie.
So the reason I tune in, to see Ryan and John eviscerate powerful people, is now a shared task to undermine the heteronormative white cis male patriarchy of broadcasting to sell more stuff to female consumers?
Sigh. Great.
I think all the male audiences have fled to podcasts anyway.
I predict Breakfast TV will become far less influential and important to the political debate moving forward now that John isn’t on Breakfast.
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I attended the toast masters ‘communicator of the year’ awards many years ago when Campbell was the winner and gave a speech. A ‘marvellous’ speech (LOL) with some very cynical insights into the inner workings of the media and how morally corrupt it is.
Wet yourself did you Andrew?
Sad to hear!
Could you see, even in those early days, that John Campbell would be like a wooden stake to the heart (if there is one), to the ACT Party, Chicago School of Economics and Trickle-Down Wealth to the “bottom feeders”?
John Campbell’s previous gig was RNZ’s Checkpoint – he really preformed well.
I’m clearly not the demographic TVNZ’s Breakfast is after, firstly, I don’t own a TV. Now, that hasn’t stopped me trying to search for meaningful interviews and clips from the show..
What HAS stopped me is the absence on meaningful interview/clips. Perhaps they just haven’t uploaded any, but I think there just aren’t any.
Last time I went in search for TVNZ Breakfast interviews, [recently] David Seymour was on as a guest and to his face Debbie Ngarewa-Packer called him racist – speaks volumes.
I YouTubed today’s NewsHub Nation and watched the first 3 minutes of two clip [see: links below]. Then asked myself, “what did I just watch???” – they are speaking in terms that haven’t been defined.
I love me a good debate. I love having my mind changed. Unfortunately I’m excluded as a viewer of NewsHub Nation because I don’t meaningful comprehend their jargon.
I’m just not there demographic. They prefer an insular conversation, a conferenced echo-camber of sorts. No debate. No attempt to educate. I’ll try to watch the WHOLE of the clips soon – hopefully I prove myself wrong
ACT Party ‘tragically wrong’ on co-governance
https://youtu.be/ZRdWaxV3IV4
Talk of scrapping Māori Health Authority ‘premature’
https://youtu.be/S4JfaaUe_7g
“So the reason I tune in, to see Ryan and John eviscerate powerful people, is now a shared task to undermine the heteronormative white cis male patriarchy of broadcasting to sell more stuff to female consumers?”
Brilliantly pithy critique Martyn, one of the reasons I tune into TDB
You’re right about Ryan, he’s very very good at asking questions from funny angles… skewered Luxon nicely last week will do the same to Jacinda and others.
News here was taking the piss outa Scotty from accounts getting hauranged in the pub but lets be honest our lot wouldnt dare.put themselves in that sorta position in the first place. We’re all the poorer for that
All along the watchtower, said the joker to the thief.
It’s depressing to watch. If we only ever open our minds to media we actively solicit, we’re fucking doomed to our various bubbles that’ll only ever serve to reinforce what we’ve chosen to believe.
I have to force myself to watch both Breakfast and AM sometimes just to confirm SFA has changed. I never does but the cost is having to stomach the amount of bullshit commercialism trying to sell me shit I don’t need or want.
I’ll give it 3 months before Kamahl starts to ask himself what the fuck he’s done.
The pollies of course lerv both Breakfast and AM.
PSB reform? Not bloody likely