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I was surprised by that too. Not a fan of Mr. Slotover, so I'm not particularly pleased he's onboard, but whatever really, the line-up will still be better than ITV's.

Coulthard and Ted really don't get on that well. Remember DCs article? Shame DC isn't in the box to counter-act Teds stupidity live.

Yeah, but hopefully they'll use McKenzie more

I've had a think about this. It's not necessarily the fact that Kravitz and Humphrey in particular aren't brilliant choices. It's not just the fact that Humphrey is a crap adults sports programmes presenter (Olympics, Superbowl etc - he's been crap at all of them, and those are sports where you're allowed to cover in a slighly more relaxed manner, unlike F1), but that him being presenter implies what the coverage will be like and what audience this is going to be aimed at. You know that having him in there implies he's just going to be asking the same old bland, generic questions Rider's been asking Blundell for the past few years. Having him in there negates the fact that we have DC and Eddie in there, because if you want someone to be outspoken or funny you have to ask the questions to get outspoken or funny answers. This implies we won't get them - it'll be the same old nonsense

Wasn't one of the main plus points of moving back to the BBC that we'll have pre and post-race coverage that'll be pretty good as opposed to the generic blurb that Rider and Blundell came out with? It's just going to be another case of not bothering to switch on until Brundle's grid walks, if he continues them

Having a bland, generic kids TV presenter in there just implies most of the coverage will be focused on a certain driver whose first name begins with L and ends in S. And that's what it comes down to. It's just going to be ITV's coverage recycled in a slightly different way with a few new interactive features. The improvement we're going to get is likely to be nowhere near as great as when ITV took over 11 years ago. Those expecting neutral, professional, intelligent coverage shouldn't get their hopes up

But for the foreigners that get the British commentary, Legard will be OK. He's had a charisma bypass but he'll be OK. I'm willing to give him a chance given that he's not done TV commentary before

How on earth did Kravitz secure a job at the BBC?

Well it could be worse. I'll just wait until the first race to see what i think of the coverage.

Shame they didn't go for Edwards, but at least he'll still be doing BTCC and A1GP. I thought Kravitz was better presenting the BTCC than Ryder was, looks like that won't be happening now.



Does any international sport have unbiased coverage? I don't think I've ever found any, except when none of the athletes are from the same country the broadcaster is from.

I'm happy.

You can't really judge Humphrey on what he's done so far- the sports that he has presented on have been minority sports, at least in Britain. He has to sound like he doesn't know what the fuck is going on and to defer to his more informed studio guests because the general viewer of the NFL or gymnastics or whatever else he was presenting didn't know what the fuck was going on. I feel that he may surprise some people next year, but feel free to quote this next year and I will happily shovel humble pie down my throat if he is a disaster. DC and EJ are going to butt heads more than once over the course of the Australian GP coverage, and we'll see how long either of them last.

From what I heard of Legard on 5Live and on Inside Sport, I think he'll be good. After 20+ years of Murray and 7 years of JA, there's almost a need for someone quieter in the booth.

Kravitz' appointment upsets me. Not because I don't like Ted's work (because I do), but because it means that Rio is likely going to get the full-time job presenting the BTCC.

I know, but that still doesn't stop people wanting and expecting unbiased coverage

To be fair, ITV were relatively neutral this year bar in the key races towards the end, more than last year. They must have responded to the complaints. However, the BBC's website reports have always been heavily biased towards Lewis, and their other coverage of sports, especially MotoGP, has always been heavily biased towards the home nations. The employment of a presenter like Humphrey just hints that they're going to go down the same route with their F1 coverage. But I hope I'm wrong - Eddie has criticised Lewis recently when being interviewed after he won the title, so maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel

I'm not expecting totally unbiased coverage because otherwise Joe Public won't watch. But not ridiculously biased in the extreme

I was just logging on on the ITV F1 site and happened to see James Allen still posts there.
Also, he has his own site and this is briefly what he wrote



in a way I'm happy for him. Most of us dislike him, but to me, he had the job he loved. Good to know he'll still be pretty much involved in the sport.

Quoted

I think the difference with F1 is that it needs serious presenting. Rider was a shambles after his return but I think that was more down to the scripting than anything. He is a very good presenter and knows his stuff on F1. The Senna tribute some that up. Humphrey, to all intents and purposes, is still a kids TV presenter and has a style that reflects that - I can't see him suddenly changing overnight to suit his role. You can sort of get away with that with American football or gymnastics, but he's not going to fit in at all as an F1 anchor - it's a major sport, and if the BBC start treating it as a minority sport it'll soon be going to back to ITV. I can't see him doing a tribute like Rider's Senna one - it would just be terrible

Ever since they started revamping the BBC sports coverage to dumb it down to compete with ITV, it's gone downhill. The F1 coverage will be the same. I'm also prepared to eat my words but I'm not confident that this will be radically different from ITV's coverage. And then, as per usual on TBK, those who whinged the most about ITV will be whinging and wanting them back after 3 races

BBC's coverage of the Olympics scared me because it was horrifically jingoistic. And if I'm honest, some of that fear still hangs around. But I think they've got enough people with a background in F1 to counter Humphrey even if it does go to pot.

I dunno, the female reporters on the BTCC gets switched around quite a bit. I'm praying she'll be gone for 2009 as she's easily the worst reporter I've ever seen on racing coverage.

Actually, that reminds me, Louise Goodman's now looking for a job, isn't she?

I think overall the team looks pretty good. I think Jake Humphrey should be given a chance before he gets slated. Personally I quite like him. As mentioned before, Legard was the cheap option but I think he'll be ok. And its a pretty big suprise that they are keeping Lenny Kravitz

Host: Jake Humphrey

Commentary: Jonathan Legard
Co-Comms: Martin Brundle

Pundit: David Coulthard
Pundit: Eddie Jordan

Pit Lane: Lee McKenzie
Pit Lane: Ted Kravitz

BBC ON-line contributer: Murray Walker
BBC News reporter: Adam Parsons

Seems a decent line-up, let's see how the BBC can put it together for the viewers and fans of F1.

Well that didn't bother me so much because at the end of the day with the Olympics, you have to be biased to a certain extent. But it was very dumbed down. I just don't fancy the thought of Humphrey of Adrian Chiles presenting F1, although I do like Adrian anyway

I actually thought Rosenthal did a great job, and he was a really nice guy when my dad met him. Rider wasn't that bad either. Heck, I'd rather Lineker present it. Or Inverdale. Or Ray Stubbs. Or Gabby Logan. Or Claire Baulding. But that's the BBC for you. Next we'll get Fearne Cotton on the golf or something like that

Like everyone else, the biggest worry is Jake Humphrey. DC and EJ together has the potential to be epic, so he better not ruin it.

Pretty pleased with the rest of it though, it could have been a lot worse. Not worried about Ted Kravitz because I don't find him too bad, plus you don't hear much of him anyway. Lee McKenzie was pretty good on the A1GP coverage so hopefully she'll keep it up.

Never heard Jonathan Legard as far as I can remember, so I'll just have to wait and see as far as he's concerned.

Jake Humphrey? The dick head from childrens TV? What the fuck does he know about F1, or any sport for that matter?

But we are only needed to see him 2 minutes when the program starts.And 5 minutes when it ends.

Legard commentary samples