Michael Pell has opened up about his time on Seven’s Sunrise as an executive producer, and it is pretty interesting.
Pell has landed a gig in LA and is off, but before he is leaving for the big smoke, he revealed what it was really like working at Sunrise.
Speaking to TV Tonight, Pell admitted that the Jennifer Aniston, Reece Witherspoon drama series Morning Show which shows the behind the scenes of what it takes to make excellent morning television, wasn’t far from reality.
He said: “I remember one scene in the first season, where Jennifer Aniston’s character is talking to the executive producer.
“She’s exhausted; she’s pulling her hair extensions out and says, ‘I don’t know. It’s your job. It’s your show; you fix it!’ And I thought, ‘I had that conversation last week.’
“Not in exactly those words, but those sorts of robust discussions happen all the time.”
Pell also dug into the stuff we all want to know and discussed his relationship with former Sunrise host Samantha Armitage, “We fought sometimes like cats and dogs, always about the creative process.
“She did really well in a field that maybe she never really wanted to go into. In some ways, she’s the anti-TV presenter. She doesn’t even really love the idea of being in the limelight. She’s a country girl who likes a quiet life. But, this very busy life found her, and she killed it.”
While Pell had less to say about David Kochie, he did admit their relationship had a father-son dynamic, “but I’m the father, often he is the naughty boy that gets pulled up by me,” Pell explained.
Pell even spoke to TV Tonight about the infamous 2018 ‘Hot Topics’ discussion that dug into a newspaper story around Indigenous adoption. Guest commentators Prue MacSween and Ben Davis made sweeping statements about Indigenous people, the panel also didn’t include any Indigenous people.
The segment got them into some boiling water, resulted in a breach by ACMA, and led to protests and boycotts.
The Guardian reported that. the ACMA released a statement responding to the segment, “While it may not have been Seven’s intention, by implication the segment conveyed that children left in Indigenous families would be abused and neglected, in contrast to non-Indigenous families where they would be protected.”
Pell said: “I think for a start, not put on the person who said those ridiculous comments …and she was never on again.
“But the thing that devastated me about that whole episode is that it gave an impression to people who this issue mattered to, that we didn’t care…. That hurt me the most because we would never want to be mean-spirited.
“The whole thing was regrettable. But I think in the future, the idea of a fairer representation of those sorts of issues and a bit more care towards how you report them, is something that everyone’s adopted.
“I think what we were trying to achieve was unachievable, and I think a topic of that complexity should never have been put on a 1 minute 59-second portion of a segment that goes for four and a half minutes. That’s where we really got into trouble, as well as the people we were talking to, on the issue.
“It’s something that kept me up at night, and it probably is one of the biggest downsides of the past decade.”
Of course, all that aside, Pell clearly enjoyed his time at Sunrise and is always prepared to admit his mistakes. He told TV Tonight, “For me, I think Sunrise consolidated my skills, it also made me even more decisive, and it made me strong. You’ve got to be tough, but you’ve also got to have a heart.”
The world of morning television certainly isn’t dull, although it will clearly miss Pell.
