Stephen Warnock (left to right), Farah Williams and Alex Scott on the set of Football Focus Photo: BBC Sport/Football Focus
This is the hon. An organization that turns 50 next year, but who is Football Focus now being created for? Its former host Dan Walker tweeted that the show was «struggling,» and current host Alex Scott responded with good reason.
The Saturday afternoon magazine-style program lost a third of its audience. On Saturday's show, Scott was interviewed by the Arsenal captain and told viewers: «I like Martin Odegaard's new song, but I'm not joining in and I'm not going to sing it.» Guest Farah Williams joked: «I think if you sing it, our viewing figures for this show might go up.»
I hope it doesn't come to that, but there's clearly a growing feeling that something is about to happen. this must be done, since the number of views now does not much exceed half a million.
Football Focus has had its place at the start of late morning weekends since 1974, when it debuted as a stand-up feature. The longevity in itself is a surprising and admirable achievement, considering how much tastes have changed and how much more entertainment options there are since 1974. For many children growing up in the eighties and nineties, Football Magic with Bob Wilson became part of our diet, along with frozen French bread «pizza» and readily available glue, because it was borrowed from children's television. It may not be an exaggeration to say that he has become part of the bridge from children's stuff to the (sometimes) more adult world of sports. The problem now is that it's not entirely clear whether the show is for kids or adults.
Scott's other guest this weekend with Williams was Stephen Warnock, making for a trio of sorts. Warnock is perfectly acceptable as a pundit, but, dressed in his sensible gray Man At C&A zipper and speaking politely about tender topics of conversation, he doesn't immediately scream excitement to the younger generation.
Scott is an excellent panelist and is evolving as a presenter, but they are two different roles and she is still most natural when reacting and interacting with stories and colleagues rather than reading autoplay links. The role of Football Focus presenter was filled by Gary Lineker early in his career and may be planned to be the next step in Scott's development. But we live in impatient and crueler times than when the big-eared Queen Mum of football took her first steps on television.
Williams seems most comfortable with the banter, which is fine, but overall the format falls between two stools. Watching three former footballers sit harmlessly chewing fat won't turn youngsters off TikTok, while older football fans find the personalities and tone of the debate lightweight. The most critical may say that this proposal borders on nonsense.
The best moment of Saturday's show was Lineker's extended interview with Ange Postecoglou, a thoughtful conversation between two adults that was an interesting piece of television in its own right and was indeed offered as a standalone program on iPlayer. I recommend this to you without hesitation. In contrast, Scott's friendly chat with the boyish Odegaard was quite sweet, but wouldn't be out of place in Blue Peter.
The features of the entire football nation — the quirky Luton, the eccentric Floridian who now owns Gillingham — are watchable and, you know, Are they harmless? The segment where Scott and Williams were outraged that Scott is a player who can now be controlled in the latest edition of the EA FC football video game (formerly the Fifa Xbox and PlayStation series) was at least lost on this viewer.
< p>The fact that viewership has dropped since Scott took over from Walker could be seen as either a cause or a coincidence. But the current format, which has too little energy for children and too little substance for adults, may be best retired as it raises the bat for a half-century.
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