Since launching, the show has seen its audience steadily disappear, falling from 250,000 to just 179,000. By comparison, the BBC's 'Breakfast News' attracts 1.5m viewers and even children's programmes on Channel 5 attract 300,000.
Channel 4 is thought to have spent around £12m on developing 'RI:SE', which is produced by Sky and Princess Productions, and was hoping to achieve ratings of at least 500,000. Worryingly for 'RI:SE', which launched on April 29, is the fact that the long-running 'Big Breakfast' was axed when its ratings plummeted to 300,000 after presenter favourites Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen left the show.
The two-hour programme, fronted by Mark Durden-Smith, Chris Rogers, Edith Bowman and Kirsty Gallacher, has failed to engage viewers. In stark contrast with the chaotic sets and anarchic content of the 'Big Breakfast', the 'RI:SE' studio is bare apart from the four presenters sitting behind a long desk where they can be seen drinking coffee and eating croissants.
The show promised an informal mix of tabloid and hard news, pitched somewhere between 'Channel 4 News' and the BBC Choice's 'Liquid News'. The show revolves around half-hourly news bulletins, which are presented by former 'Newsround' reporter Rogers. The headlines are virtually the same as those in The Sun newspaper and bulletins last no longer than three minutes.
According to one insider, quoted by the Daily Mirror: "The presenters just sit around laughing at their own jokes and lots of viewers find the ticker running along the bottom of the screen annoying. It's existing in its own vacuum and things seem to be going from bad to worse."
In between the news bulletins, anchor Durden-Smith, the handsome face of Sky's rugby coverage, instigates discussion among the panel of presenters, dominated by MTV and Capital Radio's Bowman and relative newcomer Colin Murray. Sports presenter Gallacher, despite having attracted much attention as one of the faces of the show, lets the side down by merely stumbling over the sports news and showing an inability to read the autocue.
Channel 4 is hoping that 'Big Brother 3' might solve some of its problems. 'RI:SE' has been given exclusive rights to broadcast overnight film from the house.
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