Beijing Olympic Games 2008

The BBC has announced what its doing for this years Olympics: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/06_june/19/olympics.shtml

BBC One, BBC Two and BBC HD will dedicate approximately 300 hours to the event over the 17 days, plus 2,450 hours of interactive coverage from BBCi.

The opening and closing ceremonies will be presented by Sue Barker and Huw Edwards, with commentary by Huw Edwards, Hazel Irvine and Carrie Gracie.

The day's schedule on BBC1 will generally be:

6.00 Olympic Breakfast: Adrian Chiles and Hazel Irvine
9.00 Olympics 2008: Adrian Chiles and Hazel Irvine
12.00 BBC News (BBC2: Olympics 2008 with Sue Barker)
12.45 Olympics 2008: Sue Barker and Jake Humphrey
5.15 Weakest Link (BBC2: Olympics 2008 with Jake Humphrey)
6.00 BBC News
7.00 Games Today: Gabby Logan
8.00 Other
1.50 Olympics 2008: Rishi Persad and Clare Balding

I can only see this doing well if the Brits are doing well like at the last Olympics. Without British success it could be turn off TV.

Like Euro 2008.

**** Jake Humphrey - why on earth do BBC Sport rate him, he's awful!

I'm glad though it's not an all female hosting team out there, and very happy Adrian Chiles is involved - but once again John Inverdale is sidelined for the Olympics. With Steve Rider gone he, IMO, is the BBC main sport (as in not football) anchor and should be at the forefront of the Olympic games.


Plus Huw Edwards hosting the Opening and Closing ceremony with Sue Barker. Come on, this isn't the Pope's funeral!

But with recent events, the protests and the handover to London at the end; it has become just as much a news eevnt as a sports one

Yeah i definetly think John Inverdale should be one of the main anchors - especially as they have so few good male presenters. The Beeb clearly dont rate him much, its weird. He only seems to be presenting the rowing on the TV, while also being one of the main presenters on 5 live, alongside Nicky Campbell, Mark Pougatch, Simon Mayo and Peter Allen.

As you said though, really fantastic to see Adrian Chiles there, hes the best presenter BBC Sport have got.

I'm still intrigued as to what has happened to Manish Bhasin. No Euro 2008. No Olympics.

Has Adrian presented any sport shows outside of football? I know he seems to be the BBC golden boy at the moment but they might be pushing him too much.

Two questions, why is the lunchtime news moved to midday rather than One? Secondly, does that mean Breakfast will move to BBC Two, or will it be shortened and only be shown on the news channel?

Im guessing there could be some big athletics finals or something which would clash with the 1.00 News. And i dont think Breakfast will move to BBC2 as Olympic Breakfast will incorporate all the News, Regional News and weather. But i dont know what the news channel will do - perhaps screen Breakfast as normal but from N6 - a bit like the weekend version?

What ? No Ray Stubbs or Dougie Donnelly ?

This by the way is the 5 live schedule for weekdays:

2.00 5 Live Olympics: Mark Pougatch
5.30 Wake Up to Money
6.00-9.00 Olympic Breakfast: Nicky Campbell in Beijing and Shelagh Fogarty in London
11.30 5 Live Olympics: Simon Mayo in Week 1 and John Inverdale in Week 2
4.00 Olympic Drive including at 6.00 Olympic Update: Peter Allen in Beijing
7.00 5 Live Sport

Precisely only the what you would call glamour ties like France v Italy are getting the viewers. With no home team interest there is a general level of apathy about this tournament with the British public. If British athletes don't make a quarter/semi or final I can't see the ratings being good.

And Jake Humphrey just isn't good enough for primetime, there are much better presenters than him. Ray Stubbs is like the BBC's version of Jim Rosenthal, competent in what they do but boring as f**k!! But I'd still prefer him to Jake Humphrey.