RI:SE
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RI:SE was a breakfast television show made by Princess Productions in collaboration with Sky Television for Channel 4 in the UK. It was scheduled to replace The Big Breakfast after declining ratings. It launched on 29 April 2002. The programme was broadcast between 06:55 and 09:00 nationally in the UK.
The initial idea seems to have been to combine zoo TV with an emphasis on "young and sexy" presenters. Original presenters included: Mark Durden-Smith, Colin Murray, Kirsty Gallacher, Edith Bowman, Chris Rogers, Liz Bonnin, and Henry Bonsu.
Its viewing figures did not meet the initial expectations — some newspapers wrote about the "FA:LL of RI:SE" — and a variety of format changes were made to try to boost ratings, with Iain Lee, Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins being drafted in to try to improve things. The 2002 winner of Big Brother, Kate Lawler, also had a stint at co-presenting the programme. The programme covered reality TV programmes, such as Big Brother as main features of its schedule. Iain Lee and Kate Lawler, the main presenters when the show was axed, were not popular with the audience and helped the programme into a rapid decline.
It originally broadcast from BSkyB's studios in Isleworth, but moved above Whiteley's Shopping Centre in Bayswater, West London when it was relaunched in January 2003. After relaunch the programme strongly appeared to be morphing into The Big Breakfast, notably with the presenters sitting as a couple in front of french doors, games, competitions, crew involvement and outside broadcasts.
The programme was constantly mocked in tabloid newspapers, especially when it was revealed that viewing figures had fallen under 10,000, even getting less viewers than the pre-school children's programme Clifford the Big Red Dog on BBC Two. This made it ineligible for inclusion on official ratings charts and giving it an effective viewer number of 0. It was regarded as a colossal failure, and was axed by Channel 4 at the end of the year in favour of a special strand of programming. The final programme was broadcast on 19 December 2003.
External links
- BBC Online: New breakfast show Rises (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1956517.stm) - coverage of the launch
- Off the Telly (http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/reviews/2002/rise2.htm) Criticism