In the small Kiwi media scene, where most enduring reporters will eventually meet in the halls of parliament or at the pub, Chris Chang and Tova O’Brien somehow managed to never cross paths.
“Amazingly, we’d never met, never spoken,” says Chang. “But I’d admired Tova’s work from afar.”
O’Brien says the admiration was mutual. In fact the night before their first meeting – a screen test for her role as Breakfast co-host – she found herself over-analysing how it should play out.
Tova O'Brien explains why first show is 'like Christmas' - watch on TVNZ+
“You know how when something big is going on, like a job interview, you start agonising over the little things instead?” she says. “I was like ‘what do I do when I meet Chris for the first time? Do I shake his hand?’”
Chang resolved that dilemma by greeting O’Brien with a hug, a warm welcome to what evolved into a “pretty ropy” screen test, she recalls. This was back in December and the stress was heightened by the overwhelming presence of Christmas decorations.
“It was a minefield!’ says Chang, explaining that a challenge of the job is the ability to move seamlessly around the set, which is easier when it’s not jammed with frosted trees and gingerbread villages. “We were literally doing weather reads over Farmer’s Santa Bears.”
“It was not a calming space,” agrees O’Brien. “But we managed to muddle through in Santa’s grotto.”
For O’Brien, best known as a razor-sharp political reporter, it was perhaps a fitting introduction to a job that will take her into new realms. There’ll be plenty of politics on Breakfast, but also news, sport, fun and all manner of guests discussing every topic under that brilliant orange studio sun.
“I can’t wait,” she says. “Each show is like this wild journey, running the full gamut from the serious to the ridiculous, and I’m looking forward to embracing some of the lighter stuff.”
During the past fortnight of rehearsals, Chang has also enjoyed discovering a different side to O’Brien. Over the years he’s greatly enjoyed her unsparing grills of politicians – he points to her “iconic” 2020 interview with former MP Jami-Lee Ross .
“But I also love getting to see her humour and personality,” he says. “People are being let in a bit more on the real Tova. And that’s the great thing about Breakfast, you can’t really hide when it’s three hours of live television.”
In those circumstances, delivering a “perfect” show is impossible, he says. “There are going to be mistakes, times when one of us is standing in front of the wrong camera. That’s the nature of the show and the beauty of live TV.”
Not that anyone should think for one second that these two are planning to show up and wing it. O’Brien, for one, is a self-described girly swat. She likes to prep to the max and over the past few months, as she waited to take up this new role, she would watch Breakfast on TVNZ+, sometimes twice, “forensically taking notes,” she laughs. “I really love how Chris treats each guest with empathy and curiosity and genuine interest. He’s also faster than lightning, funny, sharp.”
And he gave her some good advice for the rehearsal period: get as much sleep as you can before the daily 3am wakeup calls begin in earnest. Not that O’Brien, as the mother of a teething baby, gets to treat sleep as a non-negotiable. Chang, the father of three young daughters, can relate there too.
But even at 3am, it’s not impossible that these two would actually enjoy their respective drives to work through the sleeping city. Such is their mutual love of the job and their excitement about 2026, which brings a massive event for each of them – the FIFA World Cup (Chang has vowed to turn O’Brien into a bona fide football fan), and a local election that O’Brien expects will be a doozy.
Any predictions? She doesn’t hesitate. “It’s going to be tight. And much more interesting than last time. We have a cost-of-living crisis, a war...
“The stakes couldn’t be any higher.”
Watch Breakfast on weekdays from 6-9am on TVNZ 1, or on TVNZ+
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