Breakfast TV loses tens of thousands of viewers in three years

In late 2019 breakfast TV was pulling a collective audience of almost 700,000 viewers, but in three years almost a quarter of the audience has disappeared. Where have they gone?

It’s a real life case of Morning Wars as shows across all networks wonder where hundreds of thousands of breakfast TV viewers have gone.

In November of 2019, Sunrise, Today and ABC News Breakfast pulled a collective audience of 672,000.

Just three years later, that’s down to 498,000 – a loss of 174,000 viewers.

In fact, in December of 2020, Sunrise had an average 448,000 viewers nationally – a figure which is now just short of total viewers for all networks combined.

TV Tonight’s David Knox says despite the overall shift, the gap between Sunrise and Today had narrowed in recent months, with Nine snatching the occasional metro win and on one occasion just 14,000 viewers splitting the two commercial networks and ABC News Breakfast.

The Today Show is once again competitive against Sunrise. Picture Glenn Hampson

“Over the past year there was a fair bit of commentary around how presenters approached lockdowns, border bans and state premiers and it may have prompted some to switch allegiances or seek out new alternatives,” he told Confidential.

“With so much revenue at stake it’s no wonder some publicity departments are ramping up the messaging to sell their story. 2022 will be one of the closest battles in years.”

Lisa Millar and Michael Rowland from News Breakfast.

Sunrise has led the ratings for 19 years. David Koch has been with the show all that time with Natalie Barr his new co-host. Picture: Julian Andrews

On Wednesday this week, Sunrise lured 211,000 viewers, while Today brought in an audience 183,000 compared to ABC’s News Breakfast which had 104,000 viewers.

In comparison, the embattled The Today Show was luring just 177,000 viewers in 2019, compared to once constant winner Sunrise which during that time had 300,000 viewers.

Knox says unlike two years ago when Today was failing miserably, the rivals are once again engaging in healthy competition.

The ratings downturn comes as it was revealed TV ratings company OzTAM had underestimated viewing figures in the Sydney market from early June – some say by as much as 20,000 viewers.

While last month marks the 19th year in a row that Sunrise has rated first in its timeslot for the year, Today has grown its audience share across the east coast.

Originally published as Breakfast TV loses tens of thousands of viewers in three years