Ratings for the Australian Breakfast programme fronted by former
TVNZ broadcaster Paul Henry are continuing to slide.
Channel Ten's Breakfast programme launched in February with
51,000 viewers, compared with the 300,000-plus who tune in to rival
shows Today on Channel Nine and Sunrise on Channel Seven, the
Sydney Morning Herald reported.
By March Breakfast's audience dropped to around 45,000, but has
since regularly dropped to below 30,000 - twice falling to a paltry
22,000 viewers.
However, Channel Ten's director of news and current affairs and
former TVNZ executive Anthony Flannery, told the Herald the key to
the show's success was giving Henry "more time to be himself".
Breakfast is mostly unscripted and has three presenters instead
of two.
Henry left TVNZ's Breakfast show in 2010 after a furore erupted
over comments he made about former Governor-General Anand Satyanand
and Indian politician Sheila Dikshit.
He has continued to stir controversy across the ditch when he
made "sick" remarks about asylum seekers including a suggestion
they could live in linen cupboards earlier this year.
