IAAF World Athletics Championships on C4

Actually I have a theory about that:

The glass is half empty if the glass was full in the first place and you've drank half.

The glass is half full if the glass was empty in the first place and you've poured half in.

Your theory is the same as everyone else's theory then.

Yes I believe it was a make or break opportunity for Ortis and clearly he is a clueless flop. He had a great well paid job most of us would love but did he actually do any prep work or research? What training as a LIVE TV presenter has he done? What was all that looking down his nose reading notes about? Did he think it was a well paid holiday and all he had to do was turn up and read a few idiot boards then sit back and watch the action: "LIVE in the studio. Me, Tyson Gay and Michael Johnson, LIVE, here in the studio!?"

This is LIVE TV broadcasting to the masses not the security of the cosy Kids TV and Gadget show studios where mistakes are re-shot and edited and it's all one big jolly up.
We all make a mistake now and then but those gaffes were unacceptable. Yes Rick has done ok but the overall feeling I have of watching the Championships on Ch4 this week are flat and dull. I love my athletics so 'thanks' Ortis Deley and Ch4, I wont be taking a week off work in August 2013 to watch LIVE maybe I will just stick to 5Live or Eurosport.

Please don't blame Ortis, this one is all Channel 4's fault.

Think he did a year of Live and Kicking, around 10 years ago, live didn't he, as well as CBBC's XChange, also live?

So he DOES have experience of live TV... Though whether that experience is relevant is a different matter.

Whether he did any prep or just found it impossible to remember I guess we won't know. It could just be that he kept beating himself up after each mistake, getting worse and worse in a vicious circle.

Whilst he was demonstrably not the right person for the job, I can't help but feel sorry for him.

Yes, he did do L&K and XChange, plus Studio 9 continuity.

Maybe it is just forgetting things, but you can't help but feel that he was a genuine athletics fan, he wouldn't be getting things like 100/110m hurdles wrong, as it would just be second nature.

Mind you, I'm probably being far too over-critical, as I know I wouldn't be able to do anything like live TV presenting myself (probably like the majority here)...

Sounds like it was the perfect storm of limited live presentation skills and limited knowledge of the subject causing a bit of a meltdown. Plus I suspect that the live studio shows Ortis has done have had scripts you could learn the night before, rehearsals, and possibly autocue, and where you probably haven't had to do huge amounts of preparation and research under your own stream, whereas a live sport presentation environment is very different.

You have to be able to adlib, fluently link into VTs without ever having much of a script, and just have the kit of parts needed to be able to fill time on a subject BUT finish in time to get to the next thing, and remember how you're getting there.

What I don't get is how can the hapless Deley with no background in sport or sports TV go from a kids CBBC presenter and an easy pre-recorded Gadget show co-presenter to being the MAIN presenter on the World Athletic Championships broadcasting to masses of people?

On what basis did ch4 come to their decision? My own theory is that the combined wages of the two commentators, Walker and Rawling, Iwan Thomas, Kath Merry, Dean Macey, Sonja and Rick only just equalled the fee for Michael Johnson. So perhaps they thought hmmmm Deley's cheap.

from today's Grauniad: Live television is 'a high-wire act with no safety net'
(featuring interviews from a variety of presenters pointing out that live TV can be quite hard to do)

A perhaps final nod to Ortis-gate: it was discussed on the Media Show yesterday. They spoke to Des Lynam and the Channel 4 executive in charge of talent (who comes across as a bit of a plonker, taking pot-shots at Des, mentioning how they got Michael Johnson on board and how it was planned all along that Ortis wouldn't be the main anchor for all of it).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01460ds - 11:30 in.

Just watching the Diamond League on BBC2, makes Channel 4's coverage of the IAAF World Athletics Championships look very average to be honest. Channel 4 will learn lessons from their coverage though, hopefully in time for next year's Paralympics.

I see Lord Coe is saying the same sort of thing.

The moron from Channel 4, wouldn't have stood up very well had Des been there to debate against him.

Anyone in his position who had any sense would have just admitted they made a mistake in hiring someone who had no experience in that kind of broadcasting, not necessarily clued up in the language of sports broadcasting and with no knowledge of the sport.

He was saying things like "we give people a chance" yeah that's good but what you gave someone was a chance to embarrass themselves and damage their reputation.

He also likened it when they gave Des a chance on Countdown, and made the point that he was a bit shaky on his first show. Well I'm sorry they knew for a fact a job like Countdown which is so forumlic and scripted would be a piece of piss for someone with Lynam's broadcasting experience. A rolling sporting event for someone who'd only ever done a pre-recorded magazine show about gadgets and some kids TV, is a massive step up.

I can understand Channel 4 wanting to break new sports broadcasting talent and not wanting to go for an old hand such as Steve Rider, but I fail to see what reason they had to think he'd be any good at it.

You should ease someone like Ortis into a role like that, first doing the odd report, then highlights programmes and then you'd be able to judge whether they might be any good presenting a tough continues live sport event.