BBC Breakfast

Surprised to see that BBC Sport presenters are reading the news. Would have thought they would have thrown back to TVC or Salford for 'the rest of todays news'
Under the rules that pretty much kicked Moira Stuart off TV news (which I disagree with BTW) is this situation meant to be allowed?

it's a fair point, although many sports presenters are actually journalists who specialise in sport, I don't think Hazel is a trained journo. Although she has much more experience of interviewing than Moira would have.

She's a great presenter - and they do need a sport specialist presenter as one of the two main presenters on Olympic Breakfast (cf Sian and Chris at other times)

Hazel's an experienced interviewer, and was a main network sports presenter for quite a while in the 90s/00s, alongside Rob Bonnet and Mary Rhodes, in the days when the network bulletins had their own dedicated sports presenters rather than sharing with News 24.

Because she knows her stuff inside out, and has a sense of humour, she's able to relax, which means it's incredibly comfortable viewing. Relaxed, confident, fluent presenters are vital in live broadcasting.

You can be made to look brilliant in an edit on scripted, recorded shows. To look brilliant live is a different kettle of fish. In this situation, presentation experience is probably the key factor.

And the Olympic Breakfast show has a News/Sport feel - coming from the BBC Sport studio - so it really does need a BBC Sport presence.

BTW - I hear that Olympic Breakfast and Olympic Sportsday are both being run from the Salford gallery with the individual cameras fed up the line separately and cut in Salford. (NBC Today did the same thing in Beijing - with each camera running into the gallery at 30 Rock in NY)

That would have needed a 3rd presenter each day, which would have been wasteful. Out of the 4 Olympic Breakfast presenters, only Hazel isn't a journalist - and from what I've seen the only 'news' she has been doing is reading headlines. And there is always Bill with her

It's been so long that I'd actually forgotten that the network bulletins had a dedicated sports team back then. I remember that the three you mention used to appear on Friday's Six and the Saturday late bulletins, if not some others as well. It seems strange now that the Six had a sport presence; these days dedicated sport presenters only appear at weekends on network bulletins. Helen Rollason was also a network sports presenter, but I can't recall now whether she appeared after the virtual era, as I think she sadly died in c. 2000.

I sometimes think it's a little unfair to say someone isn't a journalist just because they haven't got a journalism qualification. Experience quite often counts for a lot. In fact, there are two internationally well-known former BBC news presenters whom I know didn't go to university. One has retired and the other is still active; and you wouldn't say either of them are not journalists.

Yes, Helen was given a special slot in the 1999 rebrand as the 6 sports presenter (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/apr/21/janinegibson. Sadly, as you say, she died later that year.

Yeah, the sports slot on the Six didn't last very long after her death. One of the reasons it started was because Rollason's illness meant Friday teatimes were far more convenient for her than Saturday nights. I remember in the first week of the Ten O'Clock News in October 2000, on the Wednesday they had a sports slot with a separate presenter because there was a lot of sport on, but I don't think they did that very often, or indeed ever again.

Yup, that's right - although a gallery at the IBC is also helping out with cutting up beauty cams and the like. There have also been a couple of HD sat trucks out and about for Breakfast this week - they're at Windsor and Hampton Court this morning.

Olympic Gold Medalists on the Breakfast sofa

http://p.twimg.com/AzRzAZuCQAASL6I.jpg

Hazel used to be a Sports Reporter for Scottish Television before moving to the BBC

Yes, Pete. You're right. Hazel's first tv job was alongside Arthur Montford, Ian Archer and Jim White on STV's Scotsport back in the 80's, when she became the replacement presenter for Sally McNair, when Sally went off on maternity leave.

Hazel's first appearance was on a Sunday afternoon edition of Scotsport.

Liking the Breakfast Olympic set. Is it the same one that Linekar is in at the moment?