Larry and Kylie in demand

They’ve been so successful at their show that they haven’t lost a week of ratings in 4 years. And they’ve been so good at what they do that they are frequently prone to speculation about contracts, salaries and network promotions.

But despite the attention, Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur are happy to be chugging along on The Morning Show.

In addition to her morning duties, Gillies sometimes doubles as a host for Today Tonight or on Sunrise.

“It’s great that I get the variety, obviously when nobody else is available!,” she laughs. “‘What’s Kylie up to? Yeah she can do it!’ But it’s nice to be asked.”

As a sibling to Sunrise, The Morning Show may differ by adding advertorials, but while there are subtle differences in content and pace, the show can also follow breaking news.

“I guess once 9:00 ticks over the pace of people at home is a little different. You’ve dropped the kids at school… I think people might watch Sunrise in 10 minute spurts but after 9:00 things aren’t as frantic. But having said that our segments are pretty punchy and they move along,” she says.

“We did asylum seekers today, and (last week) we followed Hurricane Irene and did 2 or 3 live crosses on Monday to New York because it was happening while we were on air.”

Gillies admits she doesn’t watch the opposition shows, Kerri-Anne and The Circle, mainly because they are on air at the same time and finding time to catch-up is difficult. She is already juggling home / life balance, like many of The Morning Show‘s audience. She is the mother of two young boys, aged 6 and 8.

“I get up at about 5:40, which is nowhere near as bad as Sunrise. And the show comes off at 11:30 and there can be meetings, interviews. It depends what’s going on.  I pick up the kids from school at 3:15 pretty much every day,” she says.

“I don’t get to do the morning school drop-off so I really like to be there to pick them up. It’s not always possible but I think I’m there about 95% of the time. I make a priority for that even if I have a lunch meeting.

“If you go to a Sunrise / Morning Show lunch meeting that involves me, Nat and Mel, we’re out of there by 2:45. So you don’t catch us having long lunches. Boozy, long business lunches unfortunately and school pick-up do not mix in the slightest.

“School pick-up is my best time of day. Larry will be disappointed I don’t say it’s seeing his face at 7:00 in the morning. But he rates a second.”

Rumours about Melissa Doyle exiting Sunrise in the future surfaced again on the weekend, but despite being a fill-in co-host, Gillies isn’t indicating any desire to switch host sets.

“I think they just needed someone to fill in for the week and they asked me to do it,” she says.

“I read a quote from Mel in New Idea that she’s loving it and very happy where she is, and I think she has a great job. I’m a huge fan of Mel’s and we have a friendship that dates back to us both working in the newsroom at Epping. We were both on the road for the 6:00 News, reporting back in the mid-90s.

“The work that she and Kochie did to bring it from nothing to where it is today is amazing.

“I am very happy where I am on The Morning Show. I love my show, I love working with Larry. Very happy in my space.”

Meanwhile, co-host and TV survivor Larry Emdur is also a big fan of his job. When recently renewing his contract he was the subject of media speculation about his future and even the worth of his salary.

“There was a lot of talk. But you’d need to divide it by 2 and then by 8 again. There’s been so much crap written about me over the years that it’s laughable, most of it,” he admits.

“Around contract time people start throwing stuff out there. Figures, positions in the network, job satisfaction questions, looking for other things… those things are little landmines set up by various people throughout the place to blow up situations. It’s a game that networks play all the time. But I’ve always kept a pretty low profile on that.

“It was awkward and uncomfortable and I was glad when it finished –whatever it was.  I get why it happens and it’s not an exclusively Larry Emdur problem –but I’d never been in the middle of that before. So I found it particularly uncomfortable.

“I was hearing from all my mates in the media saying ‘What a great problem to have.’ Historically there are people who play that game all the time but I’m not one of them. I had to explain things to my family because they were asking questions about things they were reading. Having said that, great result. I’m here, I’m happy.”

Emdur has chalked up 30 years in media, and while he is well known for The Price is Right, he freely admits to more than his fair share of TV flops. Directly before hosting The Morning Show he had been host of the axed Celebrity Dog School for TEN. But Emdur wisely began investing in property early in his career.

“I’ve been prudent over the years and realised that the business was fickle very, very early. I was actively investing in property a long time ago. So we find ourselves in a pretty good position. But I’m too young to retire,” he says.

“Anyone who puts all their eggs into the TV basket is a fool. It’s such a volatile business. It’s good while it’s good and then it’s bad when it’s bad. If you can find the ‘good’ again then that’s lucky. But I’ve never put a whole lot of faith in it and that’s worked out well. I’ve kept my corporate business (as an MC) going and that’s really good. That’s really got me through sometimes years of not working television.

“I’ve had winners and losers, mainly losers, so I know how good it is to be on a winning horse. So I don’t take that for granted any day of the week,” he says.

But The Morning Show will face increased competition next year when TEN introduces Breakfast and potentially delivers The Circle a stronger lead in.

Emdur, who recalls The Morning Show entering the market against two established programmes, even acknowledges TEN could carve out a new audience.

“I think there’s room. People have different tastes and we are for some people, Kerri-Anne for others. So we’ll see what happens. You can’t predict it. If they could replicate the success of The Morning Show ratings-wise, you’d just replicate that,” he says.

“There were question marks all over our template about would it work? Kerri-Anne had a huge audience, David and Kim were established. There were cultural questions about what people were watching on Channel Seven at 9:00 and would they miss that?  It’s very difficult to predict.”

Under new producer Sarah Stinson, Gillies and Emdur are looking to another morning’s running sheet to which they will bring their chemistry.

Or as Emdur puts it, “The words come up on the autocue, Kylie takes the p*ss and off we go.”

The Morning Show airs 9am weekdays on Seven.