As I listen to Phil and Paul comment, I often hear an Anglo-accented voice commenting in the background that sounds an awful lot like Paul Sherwen. When I hear this voice, Paul Sherwen has not been talking for awhile and it’s usually Phil who’s been talking. I know they’re sitting near other broadcasters, it just really sounds like him.
Does anyone know if Paul’s actually got 2 gigs?
I think it’s definitely Paul talking in the background. If it’s for another job, I don’t know.
-Colin
Liggett does the same. It’s very odd. Why would you have two different commentaries on what is the same race ? I’m curious to know why…
What you are probably hearing is one or the other recording an audio clip for a rider profile, moment of the day or one of the human interest/travelogue peices that they play during the race. Next time you hear Paul or Phil talking in the background ‘off mike’, take note that within a few short minutes they typically play one of the rider profiles or some other quick commentary peice and the narration should sound an aweful lot like what you heard prior in the background.
I thin it is usually a mic problem or them talking to producers. The booths the announcers get a quite small, so it’s not surprising that they would pick up other conversations in there. Phil and Paul do all the English language broadcasts that I am aware of.
The English language audio is used not just by OLN but also in the UK. When it comes time to transition into and out of commercials, the audio is split so that Phil does the announcements for OLN (“watch the PBR tour next on OLN”…blah blah blah) and you can hear Paul do some announcements for the other feed. The first two years that OLN carried the Tour live, they would use a separate announcer for this purpose. It was Bob Varsha one year and another person the next. And naturally, people complained on internet chat boards about why OLN couldn’t just keep Phil and Paul the whole time.
I noticed that Paul puts on CBS gear and commentates for their Sunday highlight shows so you can say he has three jobs during the tour. So my question is, can Paul submit his expense report to three different companies? Now that would be impressive…
They do more then just the three, last I heard they provide all of the English language broadcasts.
My guess is that they voice for other broadcasts. That way they can talk about the BBQ challenge in their TdF commentary and it’s seamless. Maybe OLN sells Phil or Paul as a package to other English speaking broadcasters in which case they will do their own programming.
A long shot, but it may be for their own videos that they do with World Cycling. On a few of the Classic videos they voice over OLN upcoming shows which is stupid in a DVD.
But I noticed whenever it is commercial free they are on together, and then many times they are alone.
I watched the first week of the tour from my hotel room in Mexico. The tour broadcasts were on ESPN with Phil and Paul as the commentators. They did the same thing only it was Phil who would disappear for a while but you could make out his voice in the background.
They do more then just the three, last I heard they provide all of the English language broadcasts.
Is this true for Eurosport? I know they don’t do the Eurosport.com feed. That is David Duffield, Sean Kelly and Christine Anderson (wife of ex-pro Phi).
clm
That is David Duffield, Sean Kelly and Christine Anderson (wife of ex-pro Phi).
Actually Duffield was last year, this year David Harmon has stepped up to the microphone alongside the ever eloquent Sean Kelly.