Paul Henry, Oliver Driver and Carly Flynn joined AM hosts Lloyd Burr and Melissa Chan-Green to share their experience ending a programme run. 

It’s the final week for Three′s AM breakfast show, with current hosts Lloyd Burr and Melissa Chan-Green and the crew set to broadcast their last episode on Friday. 

Since the news broke at the end of February, when Warner Bros Discovery shared its proposal for Newshub and some of Three shows, and closures were confirmed in April, it’s been an ominous few months as the end date has drawn closer. 

Burr had only been in his role for a few weeks when the announcement was made, and he and Chan-Green have continued presenting since the announcement. 

“It’s a strange one, mixed emotions,” said Chan-Green on the AM sofa yesterday when talking about the show’s demise. 

Over its years on air, the breakfast show, which launched in 2017, has seen an array of familiar faces grace its couches for hosting duties. Alumni include Ryan Bridge, Bernadine Oliver-Kerby, Duncan Garner, Amanda Gillies and Mark Richardson. 

Breakfast television in New Zealand has been a popular format – and often competitive territory – with shows like Sunrise and Breakfast greeting Kiwis at the start of their day, helmed by familiar faces that beam into homes around the country. 

Former Sunrise hosts Oliver Driver and Carly Flynn joined Lloyd Burr and Melissa Chan-Green on the AM sofa to share their experience and advice. 

Some of those stars were in the Three studio yesterday, with TV veterans Paul Henry, Oliver Driver and Carly Flynn joining Burr and Chan-Green on the AM sofa, eulogising the end of the series and sharing their advice for how to move on. 

Flynn was visibly emotional. “God I’m already crying,” she said wiping tears away, before pivoting to some of the positives. “It’s time for a sleep in.” 

Driver and Flynn, who co-hosted Sunrise, know how it feels. “We were so privileged, I think of it as the golden years of my career,” Flynn said. “We got to be in people’s homes during really amazing moments.” 

Sunrise, which launched in 2007, was canned in 2010, with TV3 saying the show was financially unsustainable. “We got told on the day,” Driver said of their cancellation. “We’re shutting you down, there’s no show today.” 

But it’s nothing compared to the AM crew, she said, acknowledging that they had to keep doing 3am starts, and fronting to their audiences, throughout this period. “That’s tough as well,” said Flynn. “But the reason you do it is because of the people you’re doing it with, that’s who you get up for in the morning.” 

“Everybody loves you”, she told Chan-Green and Burr. “You’ve had a great time, you’ve got good friends, you’ve had some great memories.” 

That celebratory energy is something Chan-Green iterated too - after confessing she was feeling “a little upset”, she expressed optimism about the future. “It’s been lovely, we’ve still been able to enjoy that time, and get in a few last-minute requests and things we want to do.” 

AM's current hosts, Lloyd Burr and Melissa Chan-Green, and the crew are set to broadcast their last episode on Friday. 

They joked about the positives of finishing a job like this. “There’s some great things about not doing it,” said Driver, like not having to wear suits anymore. “You can grow your hair really long.” 

It also means not getting up early. 

Paul Henry – who had a long tenure on New Zealand breakfast television, hosting TV One’s Breakfast from 2004 until his resignation in 2010, followed by his namesake TV3 morning show Paul Henry, announced in 2014 and ending its run in 2016 – is familiar with early starts. 

“You don’t strike me as a person that misses it all that much,” said Chan-Green. 

“Not even remotely,” said Henry. 

Beyond the easy things like turning off the alarm clock, like finishing any job, the end of AM presents a big life change for its employees. Chan-Green asked for advice on how to adjust. 

Flynn frankly addressed the personal struggles of coming to terms with the end of a career chapter. “Don’t wallow,” she advised. “I wallowed for too long.” 

As the local industry reshapes itself and workers grapple with ongoing cutbacks and restructuring, Flynn also shared some sage advice. “There’s life outside media.” 

Paul Henry also addressed the changing landscape, and suggested the industry could have been more prepared. 

“It should have happened years ago, sorry guys,” Henry said, citing the economics of making television. If he’d been running the place, Henry said he’d have closed it down four or five years earlier. 

“Life is changing. And I don’t know why the people that run outfits fail to see it,” Henry said. “Did we expect everything to remain the same?” 

Veteran broadcaster Paul Henry, who's had several stints on breakfast TV, shared his thoughts on the industry with AM hosts Lloyd Burr and Melissa Chan-Green, ahead of the show's last episode on Friday. 

The veteran broadcaster said things had changed so much, and people – and the local media – had to expect those shifts to impact them too. 

“We’re walking around with all this new technology, everything in life has changed so much, but we don’t want our jobs to change.” 

The broadcaster – currently appearing on the latest series of The Traitors NZ – has been vocal about the industry recently. 

Henry shared his thoughts on the future of local media with Herald’s Shayne Currie last month, saying people had news at their fingertips “every moment of every day” and no longer “need to congregate around a TV at 6pm” to know what’s going on. 

He was pessimistic about Stuff taking over the TV3 news bulletin, which he predicted would be more challenging than anticipated. “They’re probably ruing that decision,” Henry said. “A decision that just goes to prove we are still not listening to the warnings.” 

It’s the latest in a slew of changes; Newshub wraps up at the end of this week, Fair Go ended its TV run in May after 47 years on Kiwi screens, and The Project was axed by Warner Bros Discovery last year. 

The last episode of AM will air on Friday. 

Reflecting on the end of the show, Flynn issued a sobering warning: “I don’t think New Zealand is going to know what they have lost until next week.” 

Emma Gleason is the New Zealand Herald’s lifestyle and entertainment deputy editor. Based in Auckland, she covers culture and media.