In Jeanette Thomas’ 25-year broadcasting career she has been the breakfast newsreader on The Breeze radio station, co-host of TV3’s consumer show Target and had a number of other presenting roles, including House of the Year, 5.30 with Jude and Crime Scene. She hosted Good Morning as a temporary host on two occasions before becoming the permanent host between 2012 and December 2015, when the show was cancelled.
Every day was a joy at Good Morning because we’d either have someone totally new on the show or one of our many regulars. Those were some of the best interviews and moments because I was mates with them, and we had such a great rapport on air, it was easy and they were relaxed – good times and good stories.
I really relished the job of being the connector between the guests and the viewer at home. It was super important to me to make that person comfortable, so it was almost as if they were at my place in the lounge and we were having a chat – even though there were four big cameras staring at them.
Watch: Jeanette gets hypnotised on Good Morning
It was a real shock when the show ended. I was in Bali on holiday and I got a text – my producer had tried to call but she couldn’t get through. It was September; we’d normally find out in November whether the show would continue and each year we’d sit there nervously wondering whether they would renew it, but I honestly thought in my heart of hearts it would always be there in some incarnation.
I guess, like many things in life, you don’t realise how much you miss something until it is actually gone, and I miss that show very, very much.
The most important thing about Good Morning was its ability to showcase New Zealand talent – the chefs, musicians, the authors, actors and everyday Kiwis with stories to tell.
For 19 years that happened every weekday. I struggle to think of a Western country that doesn’t have a mid-morning lifestyle telly show – it is such an important way to display a country on air. This was a platform where we could get to the guts of regular New Zealanders.
We appealed to viewers across the board – they were a mix of stay-at-home mums, retired folk, people in prison, shift workers, those in between jobs. It was so diverse – you didn’t necessarily have to sit down and watch the whole thing, you could dip in and out.
We had live music every day; there would barely be a Kiwi musician that didn’t appear on Good Morning. Sol3 Mio performed for the first time in their career on the show and they still talk about that. It was a wonderful way to get unknown artists on air – some people you might never have heard of, and you might never hear of them again, but that was their moment.
And then there were everyday Kiwis doing very cool things, like chef Anthony Hoy Fong, a third-generation Kiwi-Chinese boy whose mum and dad owned the local fruit shop. He is now based in New York and, amongst other amazing things, designs the menu for the White House. We had people on the show speaking about their important work in the community – like Mike King on his incredible efforts in suicide prevention, and Monty Betham on his Steps for Life, which is all about tackling obesity in young people.
There is such a massive gap where Good Morning was; I hope someone will see that great big gaping hole and create something fabulous to fill it. There were people who had watched it for the entire 19 years it was on air and I think they probably felt we were a part of their extended family.
I feel for those people and for the musos, the chefs, the actors and the Kiwis with stories to share. Telling New Zealand stories is everything – this is our country and we should know what is happening, not just with news and current affairs but with everyday life – what we are we eating, what music we are listening to, what Kiwi blokes make of Kiwi women and vice versa. They don’t have to be ground-breaking stories, but they need to be real and relatable – we weren’t saving lives, but we
probably did save a bit of sanity here and there with the stories we shared and the advice segments.
When it ended, the press release said the money needed to go into prime time; it was about the bottom line. Good Morning did make money because we had advertorials, so we all sat around and scratched our heads and went, ‘Wow, we feel like this is doing the right things and still has more to give.’ We are still not sure why it went. I am so sad to see it go, but they make the decisions they think are right, so you just have to go with it.
I love the media – it is all I have known for 25 years, so I would love to stay around a little bit longer. I like connecting with people and being the facilitator to get their story out. I hope whatever I do next will involve those strengths. Who knows what is around the corner? I haven’t got any grey hairs over it yet… but perhaps a few wrinkles.
To read our interviews with four other Kiwi broadcasting champions see the February edition of The Australian Women’s Weekly out now.
