Presenters 'gutted' as axe falls on show

'Sunrise' co-hosts Oliver Driver and Carly Flynn. Photo / Supplied

Sunrise presenters Carly Flynn and Rod Cheeseman say they are gutted the TV3 morning show has been axed.

Flynn and her co-anchor, Oliver Driver, said they wouldn't comment until they had spoken to viewers in a special one-hour goodbye show today.

But Flynn wrote on her Facebook page: "Obviously all a bit shocked ... [This] would have made a good April Fool's ... but alas no joke. We're gutted."

Media Works TV executive director Ian Audsley told staff 10 minutes after yesterday's broadcast that Sunrise and ASB Business could not be sustained in the present economic environment.

At the same time, an internal memo was sent out to unaffected staff to break the news.

Sunrise staff say they're dedicating this morning's last show to viewers who have stuck by them - some from as far afield as Afghanistan.

Cheeseman, the breakfast sports presenter, said he was gutted about the decision. "There's not much you can say about it when your boss says we need to save money and we're going to save money by cutting Sunrise. I thought it was a great show and I've loved everyone who has worked on it."

Cheeseman said today's effort would be special because it would give him a chance to thank viewers who had supported the programme.

"I thought it was a popular show - the level of support, we were getting emails all the time and we know we brightened people's day. We had emails from Afghanistan ... We're sorry we're out of time."

The morning news show was launched 2 years ago but struggled against its rival, Breakfast.

TVNZ's flagship was rating 4.1 per cent of the potential audience, against 0.6 per cent for Sunrise last month. On Tuesday, 169,000 people aged 5 and over watched Breakfast, compared with 21,490 who watched Sunrise.

Sunrise had targeted a younger audience, but in the 18-49 age group Breakfast was out-rating TV3's offering by more than five times.

Another casualty of the cuts is ASB Business presenter Michael Wilson, who moved over from TVNZ's morning business show after 10 years in 2007, bringing the sponsor with him.

The veteran broadcaster received the news on the worst possible day - yesterday was his birthday.

Mr Audsley said at least 20 redundancies would occur but it was possible some staff would be redeployed. He said he could easily have made the decision to end the show earlier.

"I would like to see it stay. I could have easily made this decision back in January. I elected not to because I wanted to see if I could get the programme to a place where it could be earnings-positive but that's not the case ... You just can't sustain it."

A news source, who asked not to be named, said the decision was "not great for the 3 News brand as a whole".

He described Mr Audsley's announcement as "pretty hideous. There were lots of tears. That was the first time I met Ian Audsley and hopefully the last".