Has the quality of TV presenters dropped?

[Tesco]

I have watched the coverage from Oulton Park and the other BSB races so far, James Whitam and Jack are a great team together (also on the WSB), but why on so many occasions do we get let down by the main host of the programme? On ITV we have James Cracknell trying his hand at presenting. I have great respect for his accomplishments on the river in a rowing boat, but he tends to leave me a little annoyed at his in-ability to relax, show any knowledge on motorcycle racing and lack presence in front of the camera. This is I am sorry to write, a case of not what you know, but whom. Mr Cracknell`s friend is the head of the production company covering the series, so there you go!! I saw this on a simular level within TOCA. The only true representation of knowledge and ability to communicate with the audience comes from the Eurosport team and the supporting members of the ITV (and BBC teams). Look, I know we all need to make a living, but the quality of television today is awful, please do not let us suffer at the hands of incompitent presenters who need the auto que to work from. We are all adults and I am not looking to persecute anyone (although I may give the impression), but I feel that the standards of presentation skills and knowledge levels are wanting greatly. You tend to find that the supporting team members of ITV and the BBC (steve Parrish and Janie) know more and make up for the lack of presence from their colleagues. As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome. If I am the only one who feels this, then, you shall hear no more on the subject.

[ChrisS]

I watch MotoGP from Eurosport because they also show 125 and 250, the only time I switch to BBC is for the 2-3 minutes Eurosport is on break. Toby Moody and Julian Ryder with Randy Mamola trackside for MotoGP do a good Job, they make the races even more interesting, compared to them, the BBC commentators sound dull

Jack Burnicle and James Whitham are also good in SBK and BSB. In SBK rather than having Tony Carter in the studio I would prefer if they had a pitlane corespondent doing pre-race interviews etc...

I also liked the commentary in the rounds Julian Ryder replaced Jack Burnicle in SBK. I wonder who will commentate where when MotoGP, SBK and BSB all have a race at the same date

[The Phantom]

I agree that commentating for bike racing in general is a hit or miss affair.

The Australian free-to-air MotoGP commentating team of Darryl Beattie and Greg Rust are the worst in the world, bar none. Thankfully we have Foxtel, and get Nick Harris who is the Murray Walker of motorcycle commentary (been around forever, very excitable, misses a lot of key stuff but is good to listen to). He's backed by Aussie Mark Bracks who is fairly unremarkable.

In WSB we get Jonathan Green (I think) who is fairly good, and recently he's been backed by Warwick Nowland, who as a commentator makes a great endurance motorcycle racer...

Best I've heard in 15 years of bike racing:

- Roger Burnett
- Steve Parish
- Keith and Julian team
- Barry Sheene

[racer69]

I'd agree with that Phantom, though i'd also include the team of Warren Smith & Kevin Magee, who commentated for Fox Sports the 2000 World Superbike Championship. It was such a pity in 2001 that they sent Smith off to do the NRL, and replaced him with David Murdoch to intro the races.......

[ArmchairBikeFan]

Ex-racers tend to make good commentators. James Whitham is brilliant, Steve Parrish is a great laugh, and Randy Mamola too, though he does mangle the English language.
Have to say I find it strangely amusing that the BSB is presented by the man-mountain James Cracknell. He's something like 6'4" tall and about 5'8" across the shoulders. When he stands next to bike racers he's literally double the size of them. It's hilarious. They showed him having a go on the BSB Rizla Suzuki and it looked like he was riding a mini-moto. He's a pretty wooden presenter, but it's early days yet.

[jim mcglinchey]

[quote="racer69"]I'd agree with that Phantom, though i'd also include the team of Warren Smith & Kevin Magee,


Is that the same Kevin Magee who used to race 500cc GPs for Yamaha back in the late 80's?

[tha_jackal]

I was watching the Eurosport coverage of the WSS race at Monza today and can i just say, what a pair of muppets the two commentators for it where! The entire race was an update for Craig 'Jonesy' Jones who was riding around in 15th or something like that, even once he crashed, they continued to harp on about how good his first quatre of a lap was :mad: They refused to commentate on the footage being shown, but rather theyd update you on where Craig was on the track and commentate that!

They kept calling Westy a 'former' 250 gp rider and said that he had 'borrowed' a helmet from Seb Charpentier for the weekend because he hadnt ridden for a while and it was so unplanned! They also had a dig at his leathers (being his two year old Arlen Ness ones with black over the sponsors, he is now sponsored by Spyke but the Yamaha Germany team didnt want him running blue 'Sicilia' leathers and the black pair that Spyke flew in for him didnt fit properly.) Do those jerks know ANYTHING? Isnt their job to research and then commentate!? What a farce it was! I was tempted to listen to the entire thing on mute!

Was still stoked with the final result of the race though :D

[maxu05]

I have no tv coverage, so I tune in to motogp.com (I have subscribed), and I have found Mark Bracks to be OK, (though not very exciting), but Nick Harris is a total wally. He is the 'Murry Walker' of motogp for sure.

[racer69]

Is that the same Kevin Magee who used to race 500cc GPs for Yamaha back in the late 80's?

Certainly is, he presents the MotoGP and the World Superbikes these days for Fox Sports in Australia

[The Phantom]

Magoo (Magee) is a reasonably assured commentator, his insights into the racing are very good as you often find with former highly competitive riders turned commentators.

Barry Sheene was the best for that - he'd invariably predict a pass well before it happened as he could measure a rider's strengths very accurately.

What I really don't like (and Harris is a prime example) is when the commentators completely miss key moments - for example when Charpentier crashed out of the Monza race they missed it until a camera actually showed him trackside. But while watching the race I spotted the corner workers in the background start to run out of camera - clearly someone's gone down - then checked who was missing from 4th/5th/6th and deduced that Charpentier was gone. It's not that hard! : )

Second major dislike is parochialism - as Jackal mentions - Keith and Julian were guilt of that with Foggy but their general geniality made up for it somewhat.

Haven't heard a lot of Mamola but have liked what I've heard (but I'll turn the tele off before I'll listen to any professional US commentators, who are just terrible).

Weirdest guy to listen to is Brit Barry Nutley, it's like a bomb has gone off in his mouth every time something exciting happens (which is the majority of a BSB race!). My wife leaves the room when he's commentating : )

[Ranger]

The Australian free-to-air MotoGP commentating team of Darryl Beattie and Greg Rust are the worst in the world, bar none.

I have to say that Bill Woods is much more awful, especially when he was the guy alongside Beattie commentating the season-ending round in Valencia, which was rather anti-climatic. :\

[NinjaMaster]

I pretty much agree with nearly everything that Phantom has said. Daryl Beattie just appears to be the leader of the Australian arm to the Valentino Rossi fan club and Greg Rust really sounds disinterested to me. Bill Woods at least sounds interested though he is boring and doesn't appear to know much. Fortunately I haven't had to listen to them for years. :up:

I don't mind the Foxtel presenters in Murdoch and Magee. I really like what Magee has to say, it's just a shame he can't put a fluent sentence together. Murdoch is ok as a presenter so long as he doesn't try to come across as an expert because he falls short there.

And Jake, I look forward to your complaint about Nick Harris telling everyone what a wonderful 9th place Ant West just came in the next GP... :rolleyes:

[tha_jackal]

And Jake, I look forward to your complaint about Nick Harris telling everyone what a wonderful 9th place Ant West just came in the next GP... :rolleyes:

At least Nick Harris actually comentates the rest of the race as it happens, he doest commentate about Ant West when the TV doesnt show him and talk about him for 80% of the race. Thats how bad the eurosport guys were!

[NinjaMaster]

I think you overstate it a little Jake but I understand what you are saying and I do hate parochialism, even for Aussies, although I do love listening to Nick Harris mention Casey Stoner's age and nationality pultiple times every telecast! :D I want commentary to be unbiased and something that adds to what I am watching.

[MrJan]

I don't have Eurosport so only watch GPs on BBC. I think even if I did have Sky I'd still watch the Beeb. Suzi Perry is a fairly decent interviewer (and has a nice arse) and knows not only a bit about bikes but also the riders. Steve Parrish has a fair amount of knowledge about the sport and CHarlie Cox hasa good personality and commentary style that makes of for hsi reletive lack of knowledge.

I do admit that ITV has been poor for a while. James Cracknell has the personality of a broom, something that really stood out when doing the Red Bull Air Race on C4 and the commentary lacks excitement which makes what are actually good races seem dull.