What do viewers make of the 'Super Bowl Factor'

The success of ITV sport in landing both the Rugby World Cup and F1 would have been greatly enhanced had England beaten South Africa, and Lewis Hamilton won the World Championship, instead of losing out by a point.

But what about the viewers on both Saturday and Sunday evenings, most of whom are presumably sports fans? What will they have made of the Super Bowl type ads: Sony Bravia 'Rabbits', Sony Blue Ray, the CDM Gorilla spot, Mondeo 'Balloons', the new Smirnoff campaign, EON’s wind farm spot and Peugeot 308? How will they have reacted to a profusion of bumpers (trying to find the right collective noun – maybe ‘collision’).

We had the spooky Guinness anthropoids – eventually scoring a try a lot dodgier than Cueto’s. We had an embarrassing collection from Honda, accompanied by the choir spot, with the Civic sounding a lot healthier than Coulthard’s car. Nor were Vodafone onto a winner with their Hamilton spectacular on a day when poor Lewis was anything but. RWC lent itself better to Super Bowl soft sell.

Even if you didn’t like a spot, it wasn’t stopping you watching the action. But ITV’s F1 coverage is different. I simply have to have a go at the way they presented the final race. There were more commercial breaks than the three podium finishers had pit stops. It was so frustrating that one of these breaks blanked out Hamilton’s engine failure. And overall you have to criticise ITV’s greed in packing in so many commercials (many of them really mundane) when even half-serious fans were gagging to see the race. How do fans react to even a great commercial, when their hero is trying to make his way through the back markers? Three laps is a long time to be away – and true fans probably seriously hate the irritating spots and even the brand advertised. Having savaged the rugby commentators last week, I can’t ignore a commentary classic from the Interlagos coverage.

It was in the immediate build-up to the off. Shrewdly they picked out Raikkonen as a potential surprise winner. So far so good. But the best was yet to come, “will there be another World Champion from the tiny kingdom of Finland?”, the scene-setter trilled. News for you guys. It ain’t a kingdom and it’s nearly three times the size of England!

You can trust Bottler Brown to get his priorities right

Social drinkers who regularly down more than one large glass of wine a day will be told they risk damaging their health in the same way as young binge drinkers. The figures will be used by the Government to target middle-class wine drinkers and to make drunkenness as socially unacceptable as smoking. Dawn Primarolo, the Public Health Minister, said: “Most of these are not young people, they are ‘everyday’ drinkers who have drunk too much for too long. This has to change.” You couldn’t make this stuff up. It is a quote from Times Online this morning. Something called the North West Public Health Observatory acknowledges that people living in deprived areas of Liverpool and Manchester are prone to binge drinking. But the real problems are in (and I quote) Runnymede in Surrey and Harrogate in North Yorkshire, which top the league tables. More than a quarter of adults are also drinking at hazardous levels in Surrey Heath, Guildford, Mid Sussex, Mole Valley, Leeds, Elmbridge, Waverley and Woking. What’s a hazardous level? A large glass of wine a day for men, and a large glass of wine five days a week for women. Purlease! These Observatory people should take a constitutional around any city or town in Britain around midnight or later to see where the real problem lies. Possibly the youngsters falling out of pubs and clubs have imbibed more than a large glass of wine? Why does Labour always tell us that it is the affluent middle class which causes problems in this country? Pure political prejudice that’s why.

Are you nostalgic for the old fashioned sportscast?

I wonder if producers, presenters and commentators are getting it right. As we all return to the calm of the office after another weekend of unbearably high voltage sporting tension, there are some questions to be asked.What happened to that old favourite, the commentator describing what’s happening on the screen? And do you remember when ‘expert summarisers’ gave expert summaries? Beating France on Saturday night was thrilling, but Miles Harrison and Stuart Barnes did their level best to ruin it. Harrison used to be all right, but I suppose that spending Saturday after Saturday with a companion as negative and carping as Barnes is bound to take its toll. Listening to these two is like drowning in a pool of battery acid. Having kicked off with the obligatory stream of rehearsed platitudes, Harrison is now reduced to doing trails for the highlights programme in the middle of a maul. Barnes’ routine rubbishing of Wilkinson is so tedious. Andrew’s excellence limited Barnes’ own haul of caps to 10, so we have to endure his taking out on Rob’s protégé. If we had any doubts, Sunday night proved it. Jon Champion, despite an embarrassing shower of opening clichés, was fine – and actually concentrated on the action. Will Greenwood was wonderful. He’s connected with the current players and it shows. Also he’s upbeat and funny. We’d better call ITV supreme Howell to make sure Will is awarded Barnes’ seat for Saturday. Even golf on BBC is not immune. The World Matchplay at Wentworth used to be a reliable nostalgic wallow with Allis, with Alex Hay or Ken Brown as the support act. Check it out this year. Allis is in his normal seat, but having his portrait painted by some French bloke. Ken’s still there, but apparently on speed now, taking clubs out of bags and kidnapping young lads. You have a partisan commentator for each finalist, and a smart young female presenter straight off breakfast TV, doing a Spanglish interview with Cabrera. But worst of all the texts and emails. Even TV golf is now consumer-centric. Ernie’s reeling off birdie after birdie, and ‘John from UK’ (I kid you not) is asking daft questions about why he has a bamboo cane in his bag, (It’s a training aid, apparently – the mind boggles). Next year DJ Spoony will be the lead commentator and doing 606 from the 18^th green.