Covering the Premiership's finale
The Premiership contract allows us to mount a midweek when there are at least six games played in a given midweek. Or, in exceptional circumstances, with prior agreement. So, once moved from the FA Cup semi-final weekend and was scheduled for live transmission by Sky on the last Wednesday of the season, we applied for just such permission. Hence an extra-curricular MOTD this midweek (Wednesday 9 May, 2310 BST on 91Èȱ¬ ONE).
We - and Sky - rather hoped we'd be showing a title showdown. Instead, we have a Cup Final dress rehearsal (minus some of the cast, no doubt) or, as some Liverpool fans have suggested, a 3rd place play-off for the Champions League! Nothing against either team (and United have been worthy winners) but, unless your own team's involved, as programme-makers we want the season's drama to go the distance. Once again, though, a fantastic relegation battle has lasted to the very last day.
Two years ago, I was editor on possibly the most complicated MOTD we've ever made. Going into the last day, . In the course of umpteen twists and turns, all four were bottom at one point or other in the afternoon, and all four were fourth bottom, and thus staying up, at various stages. We edited all four games together with a running league table which had to be added live on air.
To make matters worse, the guy keeping an editorial eye on that package (Mark Demuth, editor of MOTD2) is a Palace fan. His team went down with eight minutes to spare, thus saving Adrian Chiles' Albion from the drop. Sheer professionalism got Mark through a very testing evening. Meanwhile, Adrian had gone to the Hawthorns and, not unreasonably, sent us all messages of rapidly declining coherence during the course of the evening.
Though that was a great show to work on, the intercutting style is something to be used sparingly. That afternoon was truly dramatic but, just as we don't like to cry wolf and call a game wonderful if it isn't, nor would we jump around from game to game unless it was editorially justified. It certainly was that day.
There was a case for doing something similar 10 days ago when while, simultaneously, . In the end, we just felt that it hadn't finally decided the league, and that the United game was an extraordinary enough story in itself to show on its own. We then cut to Chelsea where we were able to see that game and the crowd's reaction to the ups and downs from Goodison, before cutting back to see United's post-match reaction to the Chelsea score. We then ran intercut interviews and analysed both games.
As in 2005, this year's relegation battle has gone to the wire. It may even rumble on into the summer if West Ham stay up and legal action follows. Unless something quite incredible happens somewhere else, Sheffield United v Wigan and Manchester United v West Ham will lead the show. I know that will annoy one or two fans whose teams are involved in the race - for example Everton's last Saturday - but, objectively, relegation is the bigger issue. The Uefa Cup race will be next in the running order, though.
We're keeping an open mind on which relegation game comes first and whether we intercut them. If West Ham draw or win, we may well start with them, because the Bramall Lane game then becomes a self-contained relegation play-off. However, if Wigan are winning late on and West Ham score an equaliser which saves them and puts Sheffield United in the bottom three, we'll probably intercut from game to game to recreate the drama.
Having lived through a number of similar days as a fan, I'm all for mid-table mediocrity for my team. As an editor, though, bring on as much late and nerve-wracking drama for everyone else's teams as possible!
