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Sportscaster Girl Commentator
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Types of sports broadcasters
Play-by-play announcers are the primary speakers, valued for their articulateness and ability to describe the events of an often fast-moving contest. Color commentators are valued for experience and insight into the game, and are often asked questions by the play-by-play announcer to give them a topic for analysis. The latter most often have gained their experience in the sport as a player and/or coach, while the former is more likely to be a professional broadcast journalist than a participant in the sport, although there are numerous exceptions to these general trends.
The most common format for a sports television broadcast is to have one of each type. An example is NBC Sunday Night Football, which is called by Cris Collinsworth, a former NFL receiver, (formerly by John Madden, a former head coach), and Al Michaels, a professional announcer. In the United Kingdom however there is a much less distinct division between play-by-play and color commentary, although two-man commentary teams usually feature an enthusiast with formal journalistic training but little or no competitive experience leading the commentary, and an expert former (or current) competitor following up with analysis or summary. There are however exceptions to this - all of the United Kingdom's major cricket and snooker commentators are former professionals in their sports, while the legendary Formula One racing commentator Murray Walker had no formal journalistic training and only limited racing experience of his own.
Another difference between the two types is that color commentators will almost always announce only a sport in which they played or coached, while play-by-play announcers - such as Michaels, Mike Patrick and David Coleman - may have careers in which they call several different sports at one time or another. However, Brad Daugherty, a former professional basketball player, currently appears on coverage of NASCAR auto racing on ESPN.
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