Kerre Woodham: Rising before the birds no way to start a day

4:00 AM Sunday Oct 21, 2012

Petra Bagust. Photo / Supplied

I'm not at all surprised Petra Bagust has quit Breakfast television.

What does amaze me are the number of erstwhile sensible people who choose to work a breakfast shift.

I have only ever worked on a breakfast show once in my life, with Kevin Black on an ill-fated radio station. And although I loved Blackie I hated getting up at 4am and being cheerful until 8.30am.

To my mind, 4am has always been a time to go home, not get up.

I don't care what inducements are offered, to me, I cannot ever imagine agreeing to do a job that requires me to be up before the birds.

Those workers who must do so have my sympathy - and admiration.

By Kerre McIvor

- Herald on Sunday

Nearly there. (Tauranga) | 01:54PM Sunday, 21 Oct 2012

According to the spot survey Paul Henry has a minor majority, however, there are over 50% who have gone for an alternative nomination.
For the love of the poor beleagued public, give us someone young,intelligent with a degree of human compassion.

mchaggis (Auckland Region) | 02:39PM Sunday, 21 Oct 2012

I have to agree the Breakfast show hours are not actually worker friendly. However, Petra Bagust was not a credible or suitable replacement for her predecessor Pippa Wetzel.

The latter Breakfast host was intelligent, had good journalistic skills and projected a genuine bright, bubbly image, without going overboard, trying hard to be liked. Pippa was great in every respect, being simply who she was and didn't have to be anyone else to do her job well. In this regard, Petra Bagust was not well placed to be Pippa's replacement!

In my opinion, Petra Bagust lacked everything that Pippa had going for her and this is one of the main reasons we stopped watching Breakfast in this household.
Hopefully, TVNZ will find a much more suitable anchor for the Breakfast show, than Petra Bagust, who failed to impress from the word go!

Victor (New Zealand) | 10:09AM Tuesday, 23 Oct 2012

At one point in my life, I had to get up at 3.00 am five days a week to run a small radio newsroom. 15 years later, I'm still catching up on lost sleep. My advice: don't do it!