Controversy magnet ... Paul Henry. Credit:Marco Del Grande Indeed, Breakfast serves as a metaphor for Ten itself. Since its launch in 1964, the network has been the third string of Australia's commercial television market: leaner, cheaper, younger but unable - or perhaps unwilling - to challenge them on their own terms. Most of Ten's big-ticket attempts to match its rivals - the Olympics in the 1980s, as a sports broadcaster in the past decade and with upmarket news and current affairs last year - generated fanfare but achieved little in the long term. Ten's strongest suit remains its younger-skewing point of difference. With Breakfast, Ten hopes to take Seven and Nine on where it hurts - in the genre that sets the news agenda for the day and is worth about $100 million in advertising revenue. Sunrise and Today attract about 350,000 to 370,000 viewers, with Sunrise ahead by a narrow margin. For Ten to carve itself a slice of that revenue pie, an audience of 100,000 to 150,000 viewers would be an ideal target.

Rise and shine . . . Breakfast hosts Andrew Rochford, Paul Henry and Kathryn Robinson. Wiemers won't talk ratings and has been quoted in one media outlet as saying ratings have not been discussed. That seems unlikely and she clarifies the point. Ten's ''salespeople, [head of news] Anthony Flannery and [chief executive] James Warburton are all focused on ratings,'' she says. ''For me, it's not in my immediate brief, which is to make this show and make it different.'' There's that word again. Different. By ''different'', you could be mistaken for thinking she means Paul Henry, the man who announced his own appointment to the New Zealand press in November and, in December, announced Breakfast's then-confidential airdate. The snapshot is that he's a controversy magnet. The media call him a shock jock, a charge he denies. Wiemers is quick to defend her star: ''That is what Paul does, that is what Paul thrives on and that is what we want Paul to do at Breakfast. I know the words 'controversial' and 'outspoken' are bandied in front of his name [but] Paul has convictions.'' But conviction alone is hardly justification for rudeness or even bigotry. Wiemers concedes the point. It is something, she says, she will have to ''ride every day … especially when you're making a show whose mission statement says unpredictable and spontaneous. I can't say those words and then gag Paul Henry.''

That is what Paul does, that is what Paul thrives on and that is what we want Paul to do at Breakfast. I know the words 'controversial' and 'outspoken' are bandied in front of his name [but] Paul has convictions So, what of the man himself? In person, he's unassuming, gentle, even charming. In one publicity photograph with the Breakfast team he is in sneakers (read: naughty) and reading a newspaper (read: opinionated). The image's other subtle-as-a-brick touch is to give weather presenter Magdalena Roze an umbrella (get it?). Henry is not surprised the media has, at least in some quarters, made up its mind about him. ''The first thing any journalist would do is Google me and these things come up, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven … and if you make a snap decision based on those you'd think, my god, what are we in for?'' he says. ''But I was doing breakfast TV for seven years, five days a week for three hours and if it only [fills the first page of] Google, then it starts to put it in perspective. Anyone who has watched me for any length of time, or even for a day, for one program, would know I don't set out to shock, I set out to entertain.''

Whether the team of Henry, Dr Andrew Rochford and journalist Kathryn Robinson is a successful antidote to the more anodyne offerings on Seven and Nine remains to be seen. At first glance, Breakfast is more news-focused but its hosts will need time to find a rhythm. Rochford believes they bring authenticity to a genre whose high jinks have become more manufactured. ''Breakfast TV is personality-driven and the audience has to trust who they're watching, if they're going to wake up with them,'' he says. ''The second the audience begin to question whether you're being honest with them, that's when they waver, when they wonder if they really do want to wake up with you.'' If he's right, Breakfast may be a potent weapon for Ten. Sunrise, like any incumbent, is vulnerable to fatigue and a failure to rejuvenate for fear of spoiling a successful recipe. With Nine's Mornings barely two weeks old and Ten's The Circle down two hosts, there is enough movement in the genre to suggest Ten's timing could be right, even if its ''mix'' is untested. Breakfast's two commercial rivals will energetically try to keep it from gaining a toehold. Not because it poses a threat to both but because, ultimately, it is more likely to pose a threat to only one of them. The question is which one - and with Sunrise and Today separated by a hair's breadth in their ratings war, the arrival of Breakfast is as much about what Ten could gain as it is about what either of its two commercial rivals stands to lose. What's the buzz?

Who is in the Breakfast team? Dr Andrew Rochford (The Block, The Project), Paul Henry (TVNZ's Breakfast) and Kathryn Robinson (Ten News) co-host with contributions from weather presenter Magdalena Roze and reporter Reuben Mourad (both from the Weather Channel). Can Breakfast make an impact? Potentially. Ten was a pioneer in the genre, launching Good Morning Australia in 1981, one year before Nine's Today. Its longest-serving hosts were Kerri-Anne Kennerley and Gordon Elliott and, for several years, it outrated Today. It was axed in 1992 with the name co-opted by Ten's mid-morning show, hosted by Bert Newton. Why is Paul Henry described as a shock jock?

He is quoted as saying homosexuality is ''unnatural'', describing Susan Boyle as ''retarded'', inferring Sir Anand Satyanand the then governor-general of New Zealand didn't ''look'' or ''sound'' like a New Zealander and mispronouncing the name of Indian politician Sheila Dikshit as ''dipshit''. The last two cost Henry his job at TVNZ. Breakfast Weekdays, Ten, 6am.