Sunrise: how Natalie Barr rose to become the queen of Australian breakfast TV

Matt Shirvington’s replacement of David “Kochie” Koch on Sunrise may have dominated TV industry headlines, but the real winner in the shakeup is the woman sitting next to them: Natalie Barr.

The 55-year-old has solidified her status as Australia’s queen of breakfast TV.

While Matt Shirvington learns the ropes, Barr is in control lion’s share of hard-hitting interviews.

She is also trusted with major Seven exclusives, such as the upcoming interview with Kathleen Folbigg on the show’s main current affairs show, “Spotlight.” The network allegedly paid about $400,000 for the exclusive.

Her efforts are clearly paying off as Sunrise celebrated another ratings run on Monday increasing its market share from 245,000 to 235,000 in just one week.

A Seven insider told Daily Mail Australia that the secret behind Natalie’s success is not only her excellent journalism skills, but also her friendly and loyal demeanor.

“Nat has earned the public’s respect for proving time and time again that she’s in that chair to ask the questions they want answered — no matter how hard it is to ask them,” they said.

“There are a lot of prickly people in the Australian media, but Nat has proven that you can get to the top by being kind and loyal. She cares about everyone she works with.

Nat’s secret? She’s not pretending. There are no games. She loves her family, her job and good journalism.’

Daily Mail Australia analyzes also show that Australians, or Sunrise viewers are not, are interested in what she has to say on issues ranging from the disappearance of the Titanic submarine, Medicare and the Brittany Higgins case.

So what path did Barr take to the top of Australia’s most-watched breakfast show?

For 25 years, Barr has climbed the ladder at Channel Seven, covering everything from bushfires to political scandals.

She has also traveled the world covering important stories in the field, including attending Barrack Obama’s inauguration and flying to London to cover the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Barr has previously admitted that she is amazed at the success of her career, given that she dropped out of journalism studies at Curtin University to go straight to work at a local newspaper.

“I hated college and my parents said I could leave if I got a job and I sent letters to so many places,” the Bunbury-born reporter told me. Now Perth last year.

“I just wanted to be on TV one day. I couldn’t have dreamed I’d end up in Sydney let alone on a show like this. It’s beyond my wildest dreams growing up in Bunbury. ‘

Barr joined Sunrise in 2003 as a newscaster, just a few months after Koch and Melissa Doyle began co-hosting the show.

Doyle was eventually replaced by Samantha Armytage, who passed the baton to Barr in March 2021.

Barr had previously served as a regular substitute for Armytage and was already popular with Sunrise viewers when she took the top job.

Indeed, Sunrise maintained her strong ratings after Barr took over, proving she was the right person for the job.

In March 2021, Barr told Stellar magazine that she got “the biggest job” of her life the same week she turned 53 spoke volumes.

She explained that she had been warned in the past about women being overlooked by TV executives as they get older.

“But I just got the biggest job of my life the week I turned 53. So that’s not true, I guess?’ she said.

A working mother of two teenage sons Lachlan and Hunter, Barr then thanked Channel Seven for supporting her through her two pregnancies.

“I think there’s an opinion that it’s a big bad TV channel, it must be horrible for women. But I have had nothing but support from this company. I think I’m living proof,’ she said.

Barr previously admitted that it was extremely difficult to balance her TV career with raising her children.

“I barely kept it together. Within three months I went back to work [after giving birth] because at that stage I really struggled with motherhood and found it difficult to be home with young children,” Natalie told TV week in 2021.

She went on to say that she couldn’t have done it without the support of her husband Andrew Thompson.

“He’s so much stronger than me. I may seem strong, but I’m not really. I’ve learned over the years and through my job to be a stronger person,” she said.