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Will be interesting to see how your presenting style differs between this event and the F1 coverage.

Will you make childish jibes about what your co-presenters are wearing like you do on the F1 coverage Jake?

Oh Beef.

I hope that your script is fact checked more accurately than your blog !

You say that you are the 10th presenter but the others include Peter Dimmock, David Coleman, Brian Johnston, Cliff Morgan, Frank Bough, Harry Carpenter, Des Lynam , Jimmy Hill, Steve Rider, Gary Lineker, Clare Balding, John Inverdale, Sue Barker and Adrian Chiles. That is 14 so far ... who all either presented or co-presented by doing live interviews on at least 2 shows each ... then there were three others who each appeared on 1 show apiece ... Max Roberertson, Alun Williams and Kenneth Wolstenholme.

The great Peter Dimmock has just celebrated his 90th birthday, It is shocking that he was never knighted for his incredible services to broadcasting.

I wonder if there will be any actual sport in this years show? It used to be Sports Review of the Year but not like much of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's sports coverage (F1 being an exception) more and more it's about talking heads and celebrity.

Now the Beckham circus rolls in to town I can't see there being much for actual sports fans when it seemingly going to be targeted at readers of Heat/Hello magazine etc. Justin Bieber to win next year perhaps all he'll need to do is pop up at the Cup Final and kick a ball around for 5 minutes and the Beeb will find a way of shoehorning him!

Thanks ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ for making my choice so easy.
After 50 years of watching Sportsview Personality of the Year etc I shall, if I watch TV on Sunday evening, watch Edwardian Farmer and Bloomberg.
Why are the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ (and, unfortunatey, so many nouveau 'sports' fans) more concerned with celebrity over substance ?
For me 'Brand it like Beckham' epitomises much of what is wrong with sport (to be honest, at the end of the day, you know).

Interesting blog Jake, which raises a couple of questions:

Does it annoy you that all of these people do so much organisation and preparation just for people like myself to arbitrarily say "hmm, don't really feel like watching it this year"?

(For what it's worth, I'm only choosing to miss it because I don't think it's been a very good year at all for British sport)

Secondly, have you read Steve Rider's excellent book on the history of SPOTY?

Not to be completely anti-³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ but,

The thought that a sports person should merit honour for achievement in one sport over someone from another sport seems a little off to me. What can the criteria possibly be and how can that criteria be weighted fairly across all sports?

Darts players for example, highly skilled but hardly athletic, but then Phil Taylor has beaten everyone who has come before him for years.

Boxers, Highly athletic, skilled but don't face anything like the same number of opponents as darts players and also the calibre of opponent can often be a lot wider.

Golf, again highly skilled, not particularly athletic ( please don't try to persuade me otherwise!) but with the number of players / courses it is hard to be consistent for long periods on a regular basis.

I could go on but I think you see my point. Although personally as this is Sports 'Personality' I think it should be declared a draw as they all have very little. Added to that, What little acclaim the SPOTY had I think was heavily diluted by Ryan Giggs winning last year, a bit part player for that YEAR. Great he's had an amazing career but to give him the award (in my view) because he has been consistently at the top of his game at other times in his career is akin to giving Matt Le Tissier a Premier League winners medal just because he was good.

Sorry to sound like a nag, but the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ have been over indulging in self publicity for this event since the year began, there has always been a SPOTY column on the sports news page. Its as if your trying to create the illusion of grandeur and prestige for the event and overly doing so because you know the public do not hold this event in the same regard as the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ does.

Board room: "ahem, seems our beloved SPOTY is not as grand and la-dee-da as we need it to be, pomp pomp,"

Heat Magazine reading 17yr old work experience girl "wot bout Beckaaam sir, the public luvs 'im"

Board room: "Beckham hmmm, publicity machine, press coverage, oh la-dee what a wonderful idea, order extra champers for the whipper scampers to coff on"

think i need a cup of tea...

SPOTY used to be one of the high points of the TV year. It has declined sharply since it moved to the indoor arena setting a few years ago. Style over substance is now favoured. Instead of normal footage from the year accompanied by normal commentary we now get fancy camera angles, slow motion shots and techno music. It's disapponting that this is what the producers think the tv viewer wants to see. Tonight's award to Beckham is a new low point. Good footballer (in his day) and England captain but nothing more.

Come on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ - less focus on celebrity and razzamatazz - let's get the substance back into the programme. Seb Coe or Steve Redgrave for a Lifetime award next year!

Anyone else notice the guy who showed the seating plan and stage model, wasn't actually working on his computer but watching a youtube video. ;)

Anyone going to focus on the positives at all?! Or stick with the traditional English trait of slaughtering anything anyone tries to do. Who cares if Jake got the number of ex presenters wrong or the style of F1 presentations or the over-development of celebrity-ism in our culture.

The fact is that SPOTY represents a unique opportunity for sports men and women to be recognised for some fabulous performances, some very much against the odds, all the result of fierce commitment and determination to succeed. How about we salute those achievements for what they are and forget about the irrelevances of how the show is presented.

You can't please everyone in life, sure, but if you don't like it, don't watch it and don't spend your time moaning and bleating. We'd sure as hell win a lot of gold medals in that.....

Wow do the english complain, and dont get me started on the 7th comment about golf not being athletic (you clearly know nothing about the sport) but got to agree with sportybathboy on his point, yes it may be a bit "razz ma tazz" but at the end of the day, it is a unique chance to celebrate the sporting year, yes it may not be as good as past years, but what some people have achieved shouldn't be forgotten. Oh and anyone who doesn't think David Beckham doesn't deserve his award obviously doesn't know much about his career (Yes maybe he could get it another year once he's retired)

uwicprout "it is a unique chance to celebrate the sporting year....but what some people have achieved shouldn't be forgotten"

Summed up by an entire Olympic games (baring Amy Williams) being condensed into a brief musical consisting manly of crashes.

Interesting, Tom Daley is a man yet Amy Williams, his elder, is a girl! Patronising, sexist? Or both??

Not a go at you Jake, but the show is a joke with it's style & choices of nominees. If you are/is going down the 'Cowell' way at least get the viewers/sportfans to decide on the nominations. Beckham for Lifetime award, come on he's still playing & only 35, he is/has been a great player, but maybe in about twenty years time he will deserve it. Khan - to me & many I have asked, the best fight this year from a British boxer, but no mention or clips and Sport Relief - show or tell us where our money has gone to, not some overrated, crude, yesterdays, chav of a circus clown. They are just a few moans, but ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ you need to get back to looking after the sportsfans, not reality/More magazine viewers.

Well done to AP Mcoy & Daley (right category), but from not learning from your mistakes with Giggs and the show, next year be watching Sky.

algernon67: I noticed that too, "Manpower" then later "Girl Power" - I blame the Spice Girls.

A few years ago the England Women's Cricket team had a blinder of a season, and who got Team of the Year? Yup, the Men's Tea.

Beckham was brilliant!!! I read this blog post on him ...brings back a few memories!

I know this is a long shot writing this on your blog as you probably get hundreds of people asking similar questions.

I met you at the Norfolk show this summer and had a picture taken with you and your nephew. I spoke to you about my brother, Jack Nicholls, an up and coming sports commentator and we had a small conversation on the topic.It is his 21st birthday coming up and he has recently been offered a job working with Eurosport on doing more commentary in 2011 and being offered work with ITV when it arises in the near future. I was just wondering if there was any possibility in which there could be something sorted out, a present I could give him, that money cant buy? When in Monza earlier this year, he met Jackie Stewart and said that it was one of the most amazing experiences of his life. He lives and breathes motorsport and so i was just wondering if there is anything you could do.

I understand if not, but here is my email address.

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