While we might be witnessing the obsession for morning shows in #JannatSeAagay nowadays, daily morning television shows have accompanied breakfast tables for decades in Pakistan.
Jannat Se Aagay is the latest drama by Umera Ahmed on Geo Entertainment that talks about desires, obsession, admiration, comparison, and the consequences of over idealizing. The story revolves around a middle-class college student who is obsessed with a morning show host for the glamour and sparkle that she lacks in her life.
Starting with Mustansar Hussain Tarar, who is known to be the pioneer of Morning shows during the PTV era, morning shows have come a long way. Kids of that time would cherish each episode of Mustansar Hussain Tarar’s show while getting ready for their schools and colleges.
Later with the rise of private television, morning shows got the hype back again. Several new and experienced television faces joined the bandwagon, but few shows are still remembered for their remarkable contributions in this domain.
Nadia Khan Show:
Nadia Khan hosed several seasons of Live Morning Shows for years on Geo from both UAE and Pakistan’s studios. It had number of interesting segments including one called ‘Happy 2 you’ which masses enjoyed the most back then. Nadia would celebrate birthdays of viewers and callers with a fun jingle which was a treat. Nadia begun morning shows in 2006 and she was active till the last year with PTV’s Morning@Home.
Marina Mornings:
Marina Mornings by Marina Khan is considered to be one of the most enlightening tv shows aired on Ary digital in its early days. Fun, entertaining, informative, and meaningful with each episode having a celebrity guest talking about their life and career. People used to love it for its simplicity as much as they loved watching their own ‘Dhoop Kinaray’ star every morning.
Kiran aur George:
This is the most pleasant memories of Pakistani Morning shows. A British Pakistani journalist George Fulton visited and explored Pakistan through Geo TV’s reality show ‘George ka Pakistan’. George then got settled with a Pakistani producer named Kiran. The couple got popular and started their own morning show on Aaj News titled ‘Kiran aur George’.
A Morning with Farah:
In 2006 Veteran actress Farah Sadia started a breakfast show on ATV which ran for years. Farah was the talk of the town for her marriage and divorce with director Iqbal Hussain, later she switched to A Plus with ‘Ek Nayi Subha with Farah’. Her show was among one of the most popular morning shows of that era.
Morning With Juggun:
Juggun Kazim was considered one of the liveliest morning show hosts of her time. Juggun started with A Plus and carried the show for years. Later she switched to PTV with Juggun@Home. Her PTV Home morning show had a successful run and was one of the most well-designed shows of all time.
Good morning Pakistan:
Shaista Lodhi started her career as a host for ARY Digital’s Good Morning Pakistan. Later she joined Geo TV in 2011 and Nida Yasir started conducting GMP. Nida is still associated with ARY and the same show so much so that the most popular and longest running Morning show is a household name known because Nida Yasir.
Utho Jaago Pakistan:
Geo TV’s 2011 morning show UJP was a breakthrough for Shaista Lodhi as a host. The show was colourful, fun, entertaining, and controversial. This show introduced artificial marriages on morning shows which was followed by a great mishap on live show. The channel had to suffer a ban of a long time due to blasphemy allegations. Shaista apologized to the entire nation for this inconsiderate act and left the show after some time. Later Bushra Ansari joined the channel and revamped the show as ‘Utho Geo Pakistan’.
Muskurati Morning:
Faysal Quraishi did Muskurati Morning for years along with Ayesha Khalid on TV One. The show was later conducted by Sahir Lodhi when first Ayesha then Faysal left it. Although Sahir is now more of a radio person, but he was a household name known for Aap ka Sahir. Now Azfar Rehman is hosting TV One’s morning show and continuing the legacy.
Salaam Zindagi:
Faysal Quraishi joined Ary Zindagi and hosted Salaam Zindagi, one of the liveliest morning shows of all times. One still wants to see those episodes on YouTube. The show had a great run of almost 4 years. Tamasha 1’s Aadi Adeal Amjad and Tamasha 2’s Faizan Shaikh accompanied Faysal in Salaam Zindagi.
Jago Pakistan Jago:
Fahad Mustafa hosted Hum TV’s JPJ for some time but due to conflicts with the channel’s hierarchy he left. Later Sanam Jung made her mark with the show. Sanam became a household name for hosting the show with honesty, discussing her personal life, her domestic issues, and career. Sanam left the show after her daughter Alaya was born as she wanted to focus on her personal life.
The Morning Show:
Sanam Baloch’s The Morning Show also had a good run on ARY News. This one was quite refreshing to be aired on a news channel. Due to personal reasons Sanam had to quit the show.
Subh e Pakistan:
Late Aamir Liaquat’s Subh e Pakistan too was an entertaining watch. Rare, do we see legends being acknowledged for their contributions. This show was largely about accurate info and career graphs of legendary actors, the highs and lows of television and current affairs. The show got appreciated even more when stars like Abida Parveen and Bollywood’s Raza Murad were called for interviews.
Sunrise From Istanbul:
A Turkey based Pakistani channel got launched a few years back, bringing Turkish culture to Pakistani television. The channel released several Turkish dramas and introduced several reality shows which were unique and entertaining on Pakistani television.
Maria Wasti hosted its morning show titled Sunrise from Istanbul which was the first show in Pakistan to be recorded on a cruise in the middle of sea. Each episode featured a celebrity being interviewed by Maria surrounded by pleasant scenery and feel-good music.
Just like dramas and films, Pakistan has a versatile history in the genre of morning shows too. We invested in this territory our heart and soul so that the high entertainment quotient can be maintained right from the beginning of the day. Which of these popular morning shows was your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.
