ITV’s Daybreak ‘loses a fifth of its viewers in first week’

ITV1’s new breakfast show, Daybreak, lost a fifth of its viewers during its first week of being on air, The Independent reported.

Last week one million people tuned in to watch presenters Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley interview former prime minister Tony Blair on their first show.

However, the latest viewing figures show that only 800,000 watched the show on Wednesday. The programme’s rival, BBC Breakfast, had 1.4 million viewers.

The Independent reports that Bleakley and Chiles, who became known for being on BBC1’s The One Show, were meant to bring back viewers who switched off towards the end of GMTV’s run.

A spokeswoman for ITV told The Independent: “Daybreak has made a strong start in a very competitive breakfast television market, with viewing figures for its first week up over 11 per cent on the average for GMTV.

“ITV has made a long-term investment in new breakfast programming and, after over five years of decline for GMTV, we have already halted a downward trend in viewing.”