History
Original presenters included Mark Durden-Smith, Colin Murray, Kirsty Gallacher, Edith Bowman, Tom Binns, Chris Rogers, Liz Bonnin and Henry Bonsu.
The show launched on 28 April 2002 with the voiceover guy commenting now on 4 a brand new way to wake on Channel 4. There were no titles, just music in a high-tech studio with large video screens and a devoted news wall. The presenter Chris Rogers presented the top 6 stories before handing over to Kirsty Gallacher for the sport.
Its viewing figures did not meet the initial expectations, and a variety of format changes were made to try to boost ratings. The programme began to model itself after The Big Breakfast, with the presenters sitting as a couple in front of French windows, games, competitions, crew involvement and outside broadcasts with the likes of Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins drafted in. This was despite ratings increasing during its coverage of Big Brother 3 where over 500,000 tuned in.
Its first run underwent many presenting changes and producer departures as there was little interest in the show. Fans of the Big Breakfast who had reignited their interest in the show in 2002 when the show returned to form disliked the new shows over its opening comments of there not been any whooping crew members where the previous breakfast incumbent seemed to thrive upon.
Many criticised the show for its lack of titles, over reliance on a news ticker and six pack of news and unfunny features like search for a nobody, strap me down and lip service. The show was trounced in the ratings by GMTV. Sebastian Scott the executive producer who was present in the launch said that the expectation was for viewers to not watch it at length but to watch it in small increments.
Various presenter changes occurred where it was announced that Mark Durden Smith, Colin Murray, Liz Bonnin, Chris Rogers and Kirsty Gallacher would leave.
This happened in various stages throughout the latter part of 2002. The final episode of the year saw a reworking of Shakin Stevens Merry Christmas Everyone with Girls Aloud and Popstars The Rivals competitors and celebrities singing on the video. The famous blinking clock effect accompanied by a snowflake and a Christmas theme.
The show’s music changed on October 1 with the clock changing from white to yellow and the music soundtrack sounding more enlivened and more uplifting.
Relaunch
The show was relaunched on 20 January 2003 with presenters Iain Lee and Edith Bowman. Mel and Sue took over the final half-hour from 8:30.[1] Bowman was later replaced by 2002 Big Brother winner, Kate Lawler. Zora Suleman provided half-hourly news updates. Dougie Anderson was a stand-in presenter and also often reported from a record shop near the studio, as well as helping with the daily television review.
During the Iraq War the show was shortened to allow for Channel 4 News coverage to be shown. In the Summer of 2003 Mel and Sue left RI:SE and the show was solely presented by Iain, Kate and Dougie.
RI:SE gave extensive coverage to reality TV formats including Big Brother, Pop Idol and The Salon. In summer 2003, RI:SE launched a contest for a member of the public to become the "reality correspondent", a competition won by "Kitty"[vague], who remained with the show until the final episode.
Big Brother monitor "James"[vague] joined Iain Lee and Kate Lawler, after winning a competition to become so giving updates on events in the house and conducting live interviews with the latest evictees. One episode featured PJ[vague] who joined Iain and Kate after the first housemate - Anouska - was evicted from the Big Brother 4 house. James also accompanied Kitty on the final show.
Cancellation
On 19 September 2003, the show was axed due to its continuous rating failures.[4]
The last episode was shown on 19 December 2003, and had the most popular guests from the previous months including Jon Tickle and Shaun Dooley. The show ended with a giant 'pile on' which had been organised by Iain and Kate during the weeks before the last episode. Despite a small fan base and a loyal number of viewers tuning in, Channel 4 did not feel it was viable to continue. In its run the show featured the entertainment report, Textocution where viewers could vote off a person they hated with the remaining participant winning a holiday. This was along with the paper review and text to win where a true or false question was posed.
Since then, the show's morning slot has been taken up by reruns of sitcoms such as Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond and Frasier. In January 2006, Channel 4 launched a new live show since RI:SE, called Morning Glory, which was presented by Dermot O'Leary. It broadcast between 08:30 and 09:00, Monday to Friday morning for a three-week spell during Channel 4's 2006 run of Celebrity Big Brother 4, but was not renewed due to poor viewing figures. From 2006, Freshly Squeezed, a music show was broadcast between 07:00 and 07:30 in the morning.
The Bayswater studio - owned by Princess Productions - was later used to broadcast The Wright Stuff on Channel 5.
In a December 2019 Twitch broadcast, former presenter Iain Lee noted that on one occasion the show recorded 0 viewers.
