NZME’s new streaming video breakfast show Herald NOW has debuted. And it’s refreshing to see that from start to finish it is about news.

It stands in stark contrast to TVNZ’s Breakfast and its giggly magazine format punctuated by obligatory bulletins and couch-bound conversations.

Ryan Bridge fronts Herald NOW. He is, of course, no stranger to breakfast television, He was a mainstay of TV3’s AM Show before Warner Bros Discovery axed it as a prelude to walking away from news production entirely.

However, the new show is not a remake of AM, in spite of the scheduled reappearances of familiar political panellists David Seymour and Chloe Swarbrick (the former was interviewed on the first show, but his fellow panellist was absent), and Mark Richardson who is swapping sports commentary for financial observations. Richardson’s role – he is now a financial advisor at Forsyth Barr – was previewed last week but the inaugural financial slot on the show was filled by his colleague Zoe Willis. Bridge previewed the lineup in the Weekend Herald.

The new show’s strong news focus was obvious from the outset. It comes from a glassed-off space in the Herald’s Auckland newsroom, with busy journalists all-too-obvious in the background. The set has none of the enforced casualness of couches: It is a radio studio with video cameras. And Ryan Bridge has no coffee-sipping co-hosts with whom he is expected to exchange inane banter to ease you gently into the day. Continue reading “Herald streaming breakfast show’s best ingredient – news” →