Soccer Commentators Score New Deal

Roger Bennett and Michael Davies are two British soccer analysts, known for their amusing and cheeky commentary on the sport.  They made a name for themselves by producing a podcast on ESPN’s website Grantland; for their work on the podcast, they have earned a small, yet devoted following of fans.  However, according to an article recently completed for The New York Times, the duo recently won a significant increase in attention, due to their work for the World Cup.  For the event, they created nightly reports from a tiny room on ESPN’s beachfront set in Rio de Janerio, in which they employed their whimsical and self-deprecating tones to create amusing and compelling storylines.  Through these broadcasts, they have been propelled into the media mainstream in sports.

Roger Bennett and Michael Davies

As a result, the pair will host their own show on NBC Sports on Monday nights, which is scheduled to start shortly after the Barclays Premier League season begins.  The pair will be covering the league’s progress as a means of NBC attempting to pull on the increasing popularity of the sport in the United States.  NBC covered the league for the first time last year, resulting in the most successful run for the event for American audiences; the Nielson company estimates that thirty one million Americans tuned into the league, which doubled the figure from the previous year.  NBC’s choice to bring in Davies and Bennett indicates that they believe the sport is not only growing more popular, but the creative interpretations of the duo as well.  As a result, the pair has also been assigned the task of writing and producing online videos for NBC sports.

Davies, who has served previously as a television executive known for producing such shows as Wife Swap and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, declared that he was very excited to join NBC’s sports division.  This excitement is particularly rooted in joining the corporation that brought about some of his favorite television shows as a teenager, such as ALF, The A-Team and Miami Vice.