Duncan Greive: Duller days ahead with Good Morning in juicer

Jeanette Thomas does a fine job navigating the breadth of Good Morning's subject matter.

Plenty of noise met 3D's demise but not a flicker for breezy breakfast show.

When the end of 3D was announced recently it was accompanied by much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But the news that Good Morning was for the chop passed with barely a whimper - even though yesterday it damn near matched the current affairs show's ratings on Monday, garnering 89,000 to 3D's 96,000 at a much juicier timeslot.

Maybe that's because current affairs can free prisoners and hold the powerful to account, whereas Good Morning appears mainly concerned with providing a forum for the juicer wars. A functional society needs one more than the other.

Actually, that's not quite fair to Good Morning. While competing infomercials for the Nutri-Bullet and the Nutri-Infusion were a big part of Monday's show (I think the Bullet's winning, due to it not needing to do a "three for the price of one" deal, for what its worth) - there was a whole lot else going on too.

This being the long-running morning variety show's final week, it meant we witnessed the final ever Men's Panel, wherein blokes put the world to rights.

This is definitely a good thing for our society. A montage played at the start revealed that the panel has in fact been a decade-long vehicle for sports broadcaster Miles Davis to bully Wallace Chapman in a way which makes me wonder whether TVNZ is providing a safe work environment.

Davis, a man with many children but just one temper, seemed obsessed with Chapman's mild manners and sexuality. "I'm a man mate - I won't start crying", he said. Later: "We just don't bend over all the time like you do Wallace." Gross.

Ganesh Raj and Blair Strang (the panel is reflective of our ethnic makeup, but nothing else) could only look on in bemusement at this ugly conclusion to an abusive relationship.

Things lightened up once we hit the kitchen. Raj made a delicious cauliflower dish in a frying pan. They all agreed that it was lovely. Even Davis, who complimented the chef while also yelling loudly and non-specifically about turmeric.

With Davis and his companions-in-Stockholm Syndrome escorted off set, the show's true benign and beaming self came into view. Colin Hogg was there to promote Going South, his lovely book about a road trip with his dying friend Gordon McBride.

The interview was brisk yet not without feeling - Good Morning host Jeanette Thomas does an impressive job of handling solo the breadth of this live show. Hogg was somewhat gloomy - "at least he knows", he said almost wistfully of McBride's cancer diagnosis - but that was a welcome counterweight to the general perkiness.

Thomas was also good during a conversation with Melissa Etheridge. Cancer featured again, but also gay marriage, ageing and an evolving music industry. All in six minutes, at 9.45am! Two good interviews, two juicer-mercials - and two performances by a choir. Christmas carols, featuring two-thirds of Sol3 Mio standing at the edges. Perfect.

My mind wandered as the choir sang, thinking about how odd it was that this show would be gone by Friday, after 20 years of welcoming us to our day and engagingly keeping us informed of almost nothing.

It seems weird that in 2016 there will be no Good Morning, but there will be Kiwi Living. A near-identical show on a very fundamental level - advertorials and sitting on sofas and that - but one which views life very differently. Kiwi Living, which is more engaging to watch than I like to admit, sees its audience as an amorphous mass. The show exists to tell them they need to smarten up their act. Whereas Good Morning thinks they're perfect just the way they are.

And while there's room for aspiration in this world, there's room for acceptance too. I really think it's a bummer we couldn't have both. Why did it need to go? Surely money can't have been the issue. Few shows look as cheap as Good Morning. But fewer still are remotely as cheerful.