RI:SE
A short-lived Channel 4 breakfast show replacing The Big Breakfast.
RI:SE was a British breakfast television programme produced by Princess Productions in collaboration with BSkyB for Channel 4. It launched on 29 April 2002 as a replacement for The Big Breakfast, which had suffered declining ratings, and was broadcast nationally between 06:55 and 09:00. The show ended on 22 December 2003 after failing to achieve sustainable viewing figures.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Breakfast television
- Runtime
- 2hr 15 mins
- Channel
- Channel 4
- First Aired
- 2002-04-29
- Last Aired
- 2003-12-19
- Num Series
- 2
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Company
- BSkyB / Princess Productions
- Related
- The Big Breakfast / Morning Glory
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Originally broadcast from Sky's studios in Osterley, RI:SE moved to Whiteley's Shopping Centre in Bayswater, west London as part of the January 2003 relaunch. The Independent Television Commission condemned the show for an episode aired in December 2002 containing satirical jokes about Jesus Christ. On 19 September 2003, the show was axed due to continuous rating failures. The final episode aired on 22 December 2003, featuring popular guests from previous months and ending with a standard sign-off.
Reader's Guide
RI:SE is significant as a notable failure in British breakfast television, illustrating the difficulty of replacing an established format like The Big Breakfast. Despite a relaunch, presenter changes, and attempts to boost ratings through reality TV coverage and interactive features such as Textocution, the show never recovered from low viewership. Its cancellation on 19 September 2003 and final broadcast on 19 December 2003 marked the end of Channel 4's live breakfast programming for several years. The show's legacy includes its Bayswater studio later being used for The Wright Stuff on Channel 5, and its morning slot being filled by reruns of sitcoms like Friends and Frasier. In a 2019 Twitch broadcast, former presenter Iain Lee noted that on one occasion the show recorded 0 viewers, underscoring its struggle to attract an audience.
More in Breakfast television in the United Kingdom 1-24
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