A new year of Breakfast kicks off tomorrow with a fresh (but far from unfamiliar) face joining Chris Chang on a new set. Ali Pugh talks about her choice to commute from Christchurch to Auckland for the role.
When Ali Pugh got the call asking if she could co-host Breakfast for the first part of this year – before Tova O'Brien joins the team in April – she had a lot to mull over.
Firstly, there was the hefty commute – from Christchurch to Auckland and back again every week – juggled around the schedules of three young kids. And then, of course, the eye-watering 3.30am wakeup calls and equally unsociable bedtimes that come with a role on Breakfast.
With all that in mind, did she hesitate? “No!” she says, laughing. “I didn’t pause. I didn’t even consult my husband before I said yes.”
The thing is, Ali Pugh and Breakfast go back a long way and her respect and affection for the show runs deep.
“Breakfast has been a part of my life since I started as a round-up reporter in 2009, or maybe it was 2010,” she says. “It was basically my first real job in journalism.”
A few years later Ali spent two years as co-host of the show alongside Rawdon Christie – a career highlight.
“I love that there’s always space made on Breakfast to have a laugh and bring the joy into people’s living rooms at the beginning of the day,” she says. “It’s a privilege to help people set their day up.
“I’m thrilled to be back on the couch. Well, it’s not a couch anymore.”
True. In the 2026 version of Breakfast the couches have vanished. In fact, the whole set has been given an overhaul with the previous theme we’ll call "forest’s edge" replaced by one we’ll term "urban dawn". The presenters sit on stools at high desks now, rather than lounging on sofas – perhaps reflecting the fact that 2026 is set to be a fast-paced news extravaganza (an election, the FIFA world cup, and of course the increasingly intense international political pantomime).
Something – or rather, someone – who’s still on the set however is co-host Chris Chan, and Ali couldn’t be more delighted. “Chris and I go way back and I'm a big fan of his,” she says.
The admiration is mutual with Chris stoked that his new, albeit temporary, co-host is Ali Pugh.
“I think Ali is fantastic,” he says, joining us in the TVNZ offices. “That’s a typical comment to make about a new co-host but I mean it. We’ve talked in the past about how fun it would be to co-host together, but it’s never really been a possibility because Ali’s been in Christchurch.
“Co-hosting Breakfast is such an all-consuming job, from morning to night,” he says. “Not many people would have to engage with another person for that many hours in a day. So ideally you want someone who doesn’t make it feel like work.”
Ali agrees. “It would be very draining if you had to act.”
The pair met over ten years ago while working on Breakfast. “You got that high-profile job [as co-host] when you were quite young and I was still a junior reporter,” recalls Chris to Ali.
Both now in their late 30s, they talk about how they’ve led somewhat “parallel lives”, with each of them now married and raising three young daughters.
One difference is that while Ali says she’s not naturally a morning person (though can obviously be one when required) Chris definitely is. “Well, I’m not a night person, so by default yes, I’m a morning person,” he says. “I can’t stay up late at all now. I went to Ed Sheeran the other night and I was like, come on Ed, time for bed.”
Making it work
For Ali, the next few months will look very different from the past decade spent juggling parenthood of Thea, 10, Heidi, 7 and Jemima, 4, with part-time reporting on TVNZ’s 6pm News.
For one thing, she’ll have a lot of time to focus purely on work. “Because the afternoons are so hectic as a mum, the school pick-up, then the chauffeuring to activities, the homework, cooking dinner.
“My afternoons and evenings will look quite different now. I’ll still be prepping for the next day’s show but I'll be able to focus on one thing, which as a mum you never fully can.”
It’s different, but not daunting. Ali is confident about leaving her girls with their dad Jo Barus, a musician who plays with Sir Dave Dobbyn and is able to be a fulltime parent on weekdays, with Ali returning to Christchurch for the weekends. “He’s a wonderful support,” she says.
“I think it’s good for the girls too, to see their mum working. Although I don’t think they’ve quite grasped what’s happening yet, they will when they see me on TV. They’re very intrigued and I’ve promised I’ll let them come up to Auckland and visit the set and sit on the seats.”
But for now, Ali Pugh is focused on settling into that seat herself. She may have been in the role before but she’s far from complacent about its demands. “The show’s changed a lot,” she says. “The format is a lot more full-on now with a lot more presenter contribution.”
We ask Chris, now a Breakfast veteran, if he has any tips for his new colleague.
“God no,” he says. “I don’t need to tell her anything. She’s good to go.”
Breakfast is back on-air weekdays from 6-9am on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+ from Monday.
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