Weekend Sunrise is an Australian breakfast television program, broadcast on the Seven Network and currently hosted by Monique Wright and David Woiwod.
Head of Morning TV’s Adam Boland’s intention was always to have the show across both days (hence the name), but news boss Peter Meakin talked him into just starting with Sunday given families usually were out doing sport on Saturday.
In June 2013, Melissa Doyle announced that she would be leaving Sunrise for a national network role, with Samantha Armytage replacing her.
[12] In February 2016, Angela Cox joined and filled-in for Monique Wright as co-host of the show whilst she was on maternity leave.
On 4 March 2016, Weekend Sunrise held a Parathon, to raise funds to send athletes to the 2016 Paralympic Games.
The program included appearances from stars of Home and Away, My Kitchen Rules and Saturday Disney, as well as performances from Samantha Jade and Russell Morris and was extended to midday.
[14] In December 2016, Angela Cox returned to Weekend Sunrise to cover news whilst Sally Bowrey was on maternity leave.
In December 2017, after twelve years in the role, O'Keefe resigned, citing his desire to spend more time with his family on weekends.
[16] In September 2019, Zempilas stepped down as regular host of Weekend Sunrise, citing a desire to spend more time with his family in Perth.
Current presenters who have been fill-in hosts or co-hosts of Weekend Sunrise in recent times include Sally Bowrey, Edwina Bartholomew, Michael Usher, Angela Cox, Mark Beretta, Liam Tapper, James Tobin, Gemma Acton, Blake Johnson, Natarsha Belling and Chris Reason.
[24] Fill-in presenters for other roles, in order from most likely to be used to least likely to be used: Previous hosts of Weekend Sunrise include Chris Reason, Andrew O'Keefe, Basil Zempilas, Lisa Wilkinson and Samantha Armytage.
Ryan Phelan presented sport throughout the first half of 2015 before Simon Reeve returned to his post following the axing of Million Dollar Minute.
On the morning of 17 July 2010, Weekend Sunrise was extended well past 9am continuing into 1pm when Julia Gillard announced that Australia would be heading to the polls on 21 August.
When Weekend Sunrise was covering the Victorian bushfires in February 2009, the show extended its coverage until 11am, with the extra hour dedicated to the events occurring in Victoria.