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Monday, 1 April, 2002, 16:47 GMT 17:47 UK
Big Breakfast: Your views
The show went out in style
The Big Breakfast on Channel 4 has ended after almost 10 years on television.
Disclaimer: The BBC will put up as many of your comments as possible but we cannot guarantee that all e-mails will be published. The BBC reserves the right to edit comments that are published.
The programme has been axed after ratings fell to an average of about 300,000 viewers. The final programme featured tributes from a host of past presenters including Chris Evans and Johnny Vaughan. "There was nothing in the finale show to suggest it should have been saved from the swinging axe," said BBC News Online's Keily Oakes of the final show. But what do you think? Should the programme have been axed? What are your favourite moments? What should replace it?
Each time my wife and I visited Britain, we always looked forward to watching the Big Breakfast in the mornings...fortunately, we were able to see the show one last time just last month while in London. Our trip to London next year will not be the same without the Big Breakfast!
I tried to watch The Big Breakfast but it was boring and clearly was targeting students who either have gone to college/ uni at that time of the day or still having a hangover in bed!
Matthew Pook, United Kingdom
Channel 4 have nade a terrible mistake and they will soon realise the extent of their misguidence.
Thank heavens that the truly obnoxious Richard Bacon has gone at long last.
The Big Breakfast is probably the most unique show on television. Nothing can compare with it and it is such a shame that it has been axed.
Why can't Channel 4 continue to make the show for their digital E4 channel?
It will be the undoing of Channel 4. I look forward to a revival when they come to their senses.
The BB was supposed to be an antidote to the straight-laced BBC - and the BBC critics on this website are quick with their condemnation. Yet BBC Breakfast continues its own pursuit of low-rent tabloid status.
When it was good - it was great. A truly innovative show that would have no doubt become great again if it had just been given the time.
Mornings will never be the same again. C4 should be shot. BB was an institution. At least BB got a parting shot with their gnome giving a two finger salute to the Channel 4 offices.
Much respect due to all the presenters and crew who have made the show what it has been for the last 9 and 1/2 years.
I'm glad it's gone, it was an embarrassing shadow of itself and should have been axed after Liza Tarbuck left. I don't even know the names of the presenters anymore and I used to be an avid viewer when it was worth watching. The best thing is that we don't have to suffer those talentless wannabe famous floor crew members who screeched and pulled faces every time the camera came anywhere near them as if their jobs depended on it.
Time for a fresh start to the day instead of the sour taste of desperate programming.
Adam, UK
In the early years with Chris and Gabby it was good entertainment whilst getting ready for work, but after Chris, Gabby and the late Paula Yates departed it fast became the biggest load of TV tripe on the box. I can't believe Channel 4 wasted so much money on it.
Great breakfast show during its 10 years on C4. A bit of a shame to bring it to an end. We have to accept those decisions.
It may have broken the mould 10 years ago but you can only live on past glories for so long. In the end it was just another TV show and will soon be forgotten.
Andy Henrys, UK
The last show was evidence enough that the BB was not ready to be axed. There was so much life in it that a special longer three hour episode wasn't enough to say goodbye properly. An excellent presenting team, and a formula that worked, all gone because Channel 4 couldn't take the consequences of their neglect of the show.
Well let's hope BSkyB have people who can choose decent presenters. There was nothing wrong with the last lot's ability to read off autocue, but they were so not funny. The BB was a great institution ruined by bad choices of talent. It was like throwing the bike away because of a flat tyre. Really sad.
The Big Breakfast looked after a group of people that no other programme covers in the morning. It was a bit like reading The Sun - you know the majority of its content is nonsense but at 7am at the morning, who wants to be serious? You've got a day at work to do that.
Brad, UK
Second rate entertainment for second rate minds produced and presented by individuals unable to succeed elsewhere. Thank the Lord that good taste and intelligence have, at long last, triumphed with the end of this monster.
I agree with Kelly Oakes' comments on Richard Bacon getting annoyed about being upstaged because I feel his arrogance could be responsible for the axing of The Big Breakfast amongst other things.
However on a positive note, presenters like Chris Evans, Johnny Vaughan, Liza Tarbuck and Denise Van Outen made the show a great pleasure to watch and make the show a great institution.
The Big Breakfast created Channel 4 to what it is now, surreal programming with a distinctive edge. The Big Breakfast should of become The Big Kebab and brought to a later audience of beer monsters who did actually watch it some years ago, when they were either going to school or walking in from the pub lock-in.
Nick Dalby, Leeds, UK
It's been very good and things have been nice - however all good thing must come to an end. It's a pity though as the Big Breakfast was fast and funny. Especially with all those nice girls it had to host the show. I just hope something like this will come back, something even better.
Even though I could only watch 20 minutes in the morning, it was worth it for interviews with the greatest celebrities. Nothing on television can compare.
The Big Breakfast is one of the best shows ever, and I have watched it since it started. It was the only different thing on TV at breakfast, and now we will have to put up with Channel 4's answer to GMTV, Rise!
Going, going, gone, but not forgotten, Channel 4 have really missed the big picture about the Big Breakfast. It has had its ups and downs, sure, but it has always been the much needed alternative to mind numbingly boring BBC and ITV alternatives on show.
It has been the funny, light hearted and much loved kick-start to millions of peoples' days, whether off to work, school or simply staying home.
Davy James, Wales, UK
Johnny and Denise will forever be the best breakfast TV pairing.
The Big Breakfast will be a sorely missed kick start to the day. In its last few months it regained its courage, with nothing left to prove it went for it and as a result was outstanding.
Richard Bacon was a genius who could have saved the show, his daily performance was a brilliant satire of crap TV presenters. However most people didn't watch long enough to understand that.
The bosses have themselves to blame for the demise of the viewing figures. They picked some really good presenters (Bacon and Byron are just as good as Vaughn and Van-Outen) but they made them try and be like Johnny Vaughn and Chris Evans - because they think that's the only way to get the viewers back.
But it had the opposite effect and made the presenters nervous, tense, unnatural and grating to watch some times. When Richie Bacon was relaxed and being himself, he was hilarious and terrific TV. RIP.
Paul Bradley, UK
It's a shame - I think the current presenters were starting to get it back where it was in the two earlier golden eras, Chris and Gaby and then Johnny and Denise.
It got me through uni, and then six years of getting up to go to work. Going to miss it.
The show that celebrated its mistakes, its crew and the average British person going about their daily life.
The press coverage, even the existence of this debate, proves just how special The Big Breakfast is.
The Big Breakfast was broadcasting's answer to the tabloids: Cheap, tacky, populist, sensationalist, irritating and rather a waste of 10 years overall.
"I'll look forward to C4 replacing it with something more in keeping with the world we live in today but to be honest I am expecting them to try something else "radical" to try and replace it.
When they did, the show was fantastic (Chris and Gaby, Johnny and Liza etc.) But in recent years they've tended to go for looks rather than talent (Kelly Brook, Denise Van Outen etc).
I can't think what C4 will replace it with that won't be just a carbon copy of BB. It'll be interesting to see what comes in it's place, but they must choose the right people to go in front of the cameras or they're simply wasting their time.
Each time my wife and I visited Britain, we always looked forward to watching the Big Breakfast in the mornings...fortunately, we were able to see the show one last time just last month while in London. Our trip to London next year will not be the same without the Big Breakfast!
I tried to watch The Big Breakfast but it was boring and clearly was targeting students who either have gone to college/uni at that time of the day or still had a hangover in bed!
It is with great pleasure that I hear the Big Breakfast is to be axed. Channel 4 had a perfectly good breakfast programme that was interesting and informative when they replaced it with the mental equivalent of baby food for the last decade. I have probably watched about an hour of the Big Breakfast in the last decade and the only reason that it could be called big, was because it was utterly indigestable.
Pam, UK
Thank heavens that the truly obnoxious Richard Bacon has gone at long last.
The BB reached its zenith with Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen/Liza Tarbuck but did decline rather rapidly. I will miss it as BBC Breakfast is sometimes a little too dry and GMTV is breakfast TV for the brain dead.
After reading these comments, I must be the only person in the UK who found Johnny Vaughan unbelievably irritating, every time he was on I switched off. He was, is, always will be talentless and annoying.
The programme had seen better days but C4 should have saved it from the axe. BB will be sadly missed, it was a break from the dull and drab programming offered by the other broadcasters.
The only programme that made you smile in the morning....
RIP BB.
I agree that it should have been moved to the E4 channel. Let's hope that its replacement is as good.
It's a shame Channel 4 couldn't manage to save what was a fantastic programme, but viewing figures as low as they were dictate when a show should be axed. The BB, at one point, had the ability to make me laugh so hard I would cry, and as such I used to look forward to dragging myself out of bed at 7. However, whenever a good pair of presenters left (Gabby and Chris, Jonny and Denise/Liza), they never seemed to pick themselves up quickly enough. I almost switched off when Donna Air became full-time, and then stopped watching completely when Richard Bacon was brought into the house. Such a shame, because there are so many other people out there that could have made the show funny again (e.g. Mel and Sue from Light Lunch).
It's a shame, I'll miss it, but perhaps it was past its sell-by-date. RIP BB.
Russell English, England
Atrocious rubbish. Good riddance to it, and all the talentless nobodies that have hopefully gone forever.
I only started watching the Big Breakfast a few years ago and was lucky enough to see the brilliant talent that Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen brought to the show, before Richard Bacon and those other losers messed it all up. The show had to be scrapped, with the terrible mis-timing and poor puns from Richard Bacon and Amanda Bryon.
It was good entertainment ten years ago, but since the emergence of Richard Bacon it has gone off the scales of rubbish viewing. Thank goodness it's gone. Roll on its replacement.
The Big Breakfast was at its best when it relied on the inventiveness of top quality presenters. The format and content of the show was always inane and weak and with ordinary presenters, it showed. Sadly, the producers never really recognised that fact - the beginning of the end was the decision to employ a bra model to present.
I'm glad they have got rid of the show, I can see why the ratings went down.
Chris F, England
Richard Bacon has got to be the worst presenter ever in television history. I stopped watching the programme after Liza Tarbuck left and have never watched it again. Richard Bacon is the most arrogant, irritating, and extremely rude presenter I have ever come across and he is certainly not entertaining. I hope Channel 4 have something spectacular up their sleeves to replace the BB - but please - no more Richard Bacon - ever again!!
When the Big Breakfast started, it was mince. After years and years of shows, it was still mince. However, when I turned over one day, I was struck by something really funny. Something entertaining to watch in the morning? But yes. Then, of course, after Johnny and Denise quit, the show degraded into its former self. Bland, boring and utterly comtemptible.
I'm glad that it's gone, but will miss the days of Johnny and Denise.
JD, UK - I totally agree with you about Johnny Vaughan.
I've been watching the Big Brekky before heading off to work on and off for the past 5 years or so. It has to be said that no one could ever replace Johnny and Denise, who were the best team of them all and it would've been good if they'd re-formed their partnership and taken over at the helm again, but alas it wasn't to be. Richard Bacon never managed to fill their boots and ended up making an idiot of himself most of the time. Amanda Byron was better but needed a stronger personality to bounce off. Let's hope C4's replacement programme (whatever that may be) is a worthy replacement.
I have to agree with nearly every other comment - it was good, it was bad, it was a laugh, it was switch off TV, and somehow it managed it all at the same time. When the pairings worked it was mindless, irratating but fun. When they didn't it was mindless, irratating but fun. But let's be honest, weekday mornings are now going to be June Sarpong and the idiot Vernon presenting cartoons to the under 12s.
I have always watched the Big Brekkie when I have visited the UK, and it is such a shame that it has been axed. Maybe another network will pick it up.
I used to be obsessed with the BB and even managed to stay tuned through Kelly Brook's "presenting". Frankly, Lorraine Kelly is much more appealing. Somewhere, though, BB just became boring. There's only so much stale toast I could watch at that time in the morning.
Very saddened to see the demise of the BB, purely as there will no longer be any Star-Turn, surely the finest game ever made. Please find a new home for the game.
Why are people slagging Richard Bacon off? He was a great presenter who took the mick out of himself, the eccentric guests and the format in a way which brought the show back to life again. It's called sarcasm for those of you who didn't get it. Yes, Chris was great, yes, Johnny was hilarious but they did have good sparring partners - who did Rich really have? Donna Air - I mean come on! Sad to see it go, sadder still that I missed it. You should see some of the terrible boring, painful breakfast TV they have in Oz and consider yourselves lucky to have had the BB at all.
The BB was first class. The entire existance of this commentary reflects the way in which the Big Breakfast touched each one of us in some small way. Let's face it, you either loved it or you hated it. But after all there are numerous other channels. The Big Breakfast will be sorely missed. Good news for all those looking forward to another news & snooze style programme post-BB.... It's being made by one of the original team that put together the first incarnation of The BB. Rest in Peace Big Breakfast. I for one will miss you.
I enjoyed the final Big Breakfast, but I think it had gone past its sell by date and needs to be replaced by a programme more up to date, something like Liquid News on Choice.
Channel 4 might have better paid attention to GMTV in 1993. When GMTV launched, trying to be different from its predecessor TV-AM, it lost viewers because people don't like change. By copying TV-AM, it reclaimed its viewers back.
People like the format of GMTV and the BBC, and The Big Breakfast, in trying to be different from this convention, was bound to be the loser in what was always really a two-horse race. Channel 4 knew that they would be the loser and it would only be a matter of time before the axe had to fall.
It's sad to see the show go, especially as the show has improved so much since Christmas, that four presenter thing worked really well. What's the betting that in a few years time the rise will end up vertually a replica of the BB?
It's a pity to see it go - the last batch of presenters didn't work, and they couldn't get a decent guest on for love nor money, but it was always a good alternative to the serious breakfast shows, and put me in a good mood for a long day at work. I hope the replacement can bridge the gap between the overly wacky and the serious.
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