Matt Shirvington to replace David Koch as Sunrise co-host
Sunrise formally announces the worst-kept secret in Australian TV as Matt Shirvington says he’s ‘humbled’ by the move.
Sunrise has formally announced the worst-kept secret in Australian TV: that former athlete Matt Shirvington will be David Koch’s replacement as host of the breakfast juggernaut, seven months after The Australian first revealed the transition to Shirvington last November.
Welcoming the Olympic great to the role this morning, Seven West Media Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, James Warburton, said in a statement: “Matt has become an invaluable member of the Seven team since he joined us three years ago. He is the consummate professional, all about the entire team – just like Kochie – and brilliant at his job.
“Of course, Matt has big shoes to fill but we have already seen viewers welcome him with open arms during his time on the show.”
Shirvington said he was “excited but also humbled” by the move.
“It’s a privilege to follow on from Kochie. He leaves behind a legacy of honesty, humility and a whole lot of fun, and I can’t wait to continue adding to that,” he said.
Shirvington, who has spent three years with 7News and the breakfast program, will co-host his first show alongside Nat Barr next Monday.
Mr Koch wished his replacement well and described him as a “good bloke with solid values”.
“Shirvo has been part of the Sunrise family and filling in for me for the last 18 months. He is the perfect fit to shift into my chair on a permanent basis,” he said.
Koch is believed to have been a strong advocate of Shirvington behind the scenes at Seven, having taken time to mentor the former champion Australian sprinter about the importance of authenticity in a breakfast TV host. Still, the stark contrast between Shirvington’s good looks and Koch’s much more average appearance has not been lost on key industry insiders. As one observer pointed out, Shirvington and Weekend Sunrise host Matt Doran are classically telegenic “TV presenters from central casting”, in contrast to the considerably less genetically blessed Koch.
In fact, as he enters the last week of a two-decade stint as host of Seven’s breakfast juggernaut, Koch says he would never be offered the job in the current TV universe because of the industry’s increasing focus on telegenic looks.
Koch has dominated the breakfast TV ratings for most of his 21 years in the Sunrise chair. But he believes there is an increasing focus on “stereotypical TV people” for key hosting roles.
Koch told The Australian: “Would anyone who looked like me or sounded like me ever be given the opportunity again? I doubt that a middle-aged, bald, big nosed bloke with a terrible voice would ever get appointed these days.
“I’m a normal person with a sense of humour. TV should not be a beauty parade. It’s the character of the people you have on there, and their ability to connect with an audience.”
Koch’s comments come ahead of his final show as Sunrise host on Friday.
But will a telegenic host work for Sunrise?
Koch says the late former Seven chief executive David Leckie once facetiously dubbed the Sunrise crew in the 2000s decade as “the Manson family”, because it was “the cult that went rogue” within the network.
But Leckie also later admitted that it was his best decision to never interfere with Sunrise, because breakfast was a “very different beast” to news. “We did whatever we wanted,” Koch says.
“We broke every stereotype. We had a co-host that definitely did not look like a model. We used nicknames, and called ourselves Brekky Central. We said to the audience, it’s not our show, it’s your show.”
Koch says the show built up its distinctive identity in the early 2000s because executives paid it little attention since it initially rated so poorly.
“We were the outcast,” he said. “We were something like 5 per cent of the Today show’s audience when I started out – and because no one watched us, we could experiment. Our first office was in a demountable in the car park of the Epping studios in Sydney.”
The ratings-leading Sunrise of 2023 is a different beast, as a crucial cash machine of tens of millions of dollars of revenue each year for Seven.
And after the departure of former executive producer, Michael Pell, control of “the Manson Family” has finally reverted back to Seven’s news and current affairs division – which has much at stake in maintaining the show’s leading position.
Koch told The Australian last week that authenticity was the most important ingredient in Sunrise’s success during his record two decades in the hosting chair.
“You cannot pretend to be something you’re not,” Koch said. “I’m not woke and you can’t pretend to be woke if you’re not. You can’t fake who you are, because you’ll get found out.”
Koch’s two-year contract with Seven – signed at the end of 2022 – had always planned for him to retire from Sunrise around the middle of 2023, because at 67, he wanted to end the relentless schedule of 4am wakeups.
The June 9 date of Koch’s departure from Sunrise was formally worked out about a month ago.
