Over the Easter weekend, Channel 4 had the rights to a couple of interesting sporting events – the Boat Race and the Women’s FA Cup Quarter Final between Chelsea and Spurs. They are traditional competitions and provided an outlet that generally does not have live sport a good chance to show what it can do. Not unreasonably, the broadcaster decided to shake things up. They chose non-sports presenters to lead the programmes. Jamie Laing for the Boat Race, Maisie Adam for the football.
The results were… mixed.
Reality TV star Laing was an unmitigated disaster. He managed to wrongly declare Cambridge University Boat Club the runners-up (they had won) before sheepishly having to correct himself. The clip has, unsurprisingly, gone viral. I’m sure C4 wanted social pickup, but not like this.
Laing has tried to explain himself, posting the clip on Instagram with the caption: “When you get handed the wrong cue card.” Absolutely pathetic. A presenter paying attention would have known who had won and realised the issue with the cue card before reading it out on air. The Made in Chelsea star decided to blame the staff instead.
Maisie Adam Saves Face After Jamie Laing Boat Race Shambles
On Monday, comedian Adam led coverage of the London derby in the Women’s FA Cup. Unlike Laing, she was assured and clearly fully across her brief. Adam asked her expert pundits sensible questions. She was comfortable and understood what was happening on the pitch. No surprise, given that she presents a podcast on the subject.
Sure, she’s not Gabby Logan, but that’s kind of the point.
There is nothing wrong with Channel 4 or any other broadcaster trying to bring different voices into their coverage. Indeed, it would be a shame if the Jamie Laing Boat Race bust put them off from doing so. However, this weekend shows you have to pick carefully, and make sure those people do still know what they are talking about and take it seriously.
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