Sunrise’s Natalie Barr hits out over social media ‘haters’

Its only been a few months since Natalie Barr replaced Samantha Armytage in a job that comes with plenty of ‘haters.’ Now, Barr has made a very frank confession.

Delete and block – that is Natalie Barr’s strategy in dealing with haters on social media.

Since taking over the hosting job on Sunrise six months ago, Barr is acutely aware of the increased attention on her personal life and views.

Ratings-wise, the result couldn’t be better with Sunrise well ahead of its competitors and Barr finally allowing herself to relax into the job.

“I don’t buy into the whinging,” she said of social media critics.

Sunrise co-host Natalie Barr talks about her first six months in the hosting chair after taking over from former host Samantha Armytage. Picture: Toby Zerna

“We have got to live with it so lets protect ourselves. I just delete and block. I have blocked hundreds of people. It is my social media account, I can block whoever the hell I want. I haven’t really gone down that rabbit warren of woe is me. There are more important things than how we feel about our social media. There are people without jobs. there are people who are absolutely hurting, more than they ever had in their whole life in this pandemic, that is the important story.”

She added: “I love Twitter for news gathering, I think it is essential but it can be a really vicious place. I don’t let myself go there. There is a bit of onus on all of us to protect ourselves from social media. I don’t think we can just sit and whinge and wish that social media was a nicer place, that is pie in the sky so I try to protect myself. I have made a pact with myself not to read comments. I think people try to outdo each other with hate.”

Industry commentators said the pressure would be on with the changing of the guard at Sunrise when Sam Armytage stood down from the job and then newsreader Barr moved to co-hosting alongside David Koch.

The old Sunrise team: Edwina Bartholomew, Mark Beretta, Samantha Armytage, David Koch, Natalie Barr & Sam Mac

However, nearest rival Nine has failed to capitalise on the change with Sunrise ratings in fact increasing overall by seven per cent since March this year.

Sunrise averages an audience of 269,000 viewers across the five city metro markets and 460,000 including regional areas compared to Karl Stefanovic and Ally Langdon on Nine’s Today with 223,000 viewers in five city metro and 329,000 nationally. ABC News Breakfast trails behind with an average of 118,000 in metro markets and 184,000 nationally.

“I look at the ratings every day. I’ve always thought that people who work in TV that say they don’t look at ratings are probably lying,” Barr said. “It is our bread and butter. We respect the audience, that is who we are doing the show for every day and I am really proud of being a part of the success of this show for nearly 19 years. I am just really happy that we are still winning nationally every week.”

Natalie Barr with David Koch. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Sunrise in 2003: Melissa Doyle and David Koch with Natalie Barr as newsreader.

As for looking over her shoulder at the competition, she added: “I don’t take a huge amount of time to concentrate on what everyone else is doing. This (Sunrise) takes all of my mental strength.”

While admitting to monitoring the ratings, mother of two Barr is firmly focused on the contents of show and doing her best in the job.

She has muted Twitter notifications to stop herself from reading negative comments.

“It took me a little while to stop thinking I was filling in and start thinking this is my job, I am actually in this chair now,” she said. “It did take a few months. I was more nervous than I thought.”