The decision to replace GMTV with Daybreak followed the full takeover of GMTV by ITV. Daybreak and Lorraine made up the weekday output of ITV Breakfast. At weekends, children’s programming filled this slot. An advertising campaign, promoting the new show, started on 23 August, with short break-bumpers in between the start and end of an advertisement break, broadcast during the evening schedule of ITV.
The first edition of Daybreak was broadcast on 6 September 2010 with ex-hosts Chiles and Bleakley introducing viewers to the new set and admiring the view from the window. It included an interview with Tony Blair and a lead story by John Stapleton on the collapse of the Farepak Christmas savings club in 2006. Views of regional locations around the United Kingdom were broadcast as well as a tour of the studio. The press offered a mixed reception to the first show.
On 19 November 2011, it was reported that original presenters Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley had been axed. Chiles confirmed that they were to depart from the programme in the New Year, however they left the show on Monday 5 December 2011. Dan Lobb and Kate Garraway took over on an interim basis until new presenters were announced.
On 4 May 2012, Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly were confirmed by ITV as the new permanent presenters.
The revamped format was launched on 3 September 2012, this was greeted with a mixed reaction from viewers on social media, with some newspapers reporting that viewers reacted negatively to the “old fashioned” garish set. However, some viewers liked the change and praised the step back to the original GMTV format which the core audience had asked to return. Despite the changes to the ailing format, the first edition of the new look show drew only 600,000 viewers. Throughout September 2012, the programme averaged around 700,000 viewers, as viewers begun to warm to the original GMTV style format and new presenters. In October 2012, ratings continued to average at 700,000 viewers, occasionally peaking at 800,000 viewers.
On 15 February 2014, Kelly announced she was to leave Daybreak later in the year. She had signed a new contract to now present Lorraine each Monday to Friday.
On 4 April 2014 (three weeks before the Daybreak finale), Barbet co-presented for the final time, which made him the fourth presenter to leave the show after Chiles, Bleakley and Lobb. On 10 April, Kelly presented her final Daybreak before her Easter break, to concentrate on her own programme Lorraine, as part of a new contract she was offered. On 25 April, Daybreak came to an end, hosted by Jones and Garraway.