ITV snatch spotlight away from West Brom with embarrassing EFL highlights coverage
West Brom were given centre stage by ITV for their EFL highlights show on Saturday night with the show being hosted by Hugh Woozencroft at The Hawthorns.
The weekly programme started off with Woozencroft outside of the East Stand by the Tony Brown statue before a reel of Albion highlights was aired.
According to Woozencroft, ITV had visited The Hawthorns to watch two sides with “lofty ambitions” play against each other before talking about Albion and Boro’s recent Championship form.
Then the footage went inside The Hawthorns with Woozencroft talking in front of Carlos Corberan’s squad doing their pre-match warm-up.
However, instead of then going into West Brom versus Boro, ITV took the editorial decision to get the host to say: “But first, let’s head elsewhere in the Championship.”
Eh?
The next thing we hear then is about the Ipswich manager making changes to his side to play against Leeds United.
While that was a good game with seven goals, they decided to make the awkward transition from a build-up to West Brom playing against Middlesbrough to a match taking place elsewhere.
It would have made a bit more sense if it was 0-0 at The Hawthorns but it was a six-goal thriller with a red card and a penalty between two sides who were in play-off contention last season.
It’s clear that ITV don’t give two hoots about their coverage of the EFL this season.
Not only has the highlights show been seriously stripped back with the overall duration being reduced, a studio being canned and pundits and analysts being completely axed, but they’re not mashing together footage that makes no sense.
Why give West Brom the centre stage, talk up the game and then automatically head “elsewhere in the Championship” without any proper introduction?
It’s the editorial equivalent of trying to ram a square peg into a round hole.
Once they did bother to air the Albion’s 4-2 win over Middlesbrough, Woozencroft got to chat with Corberan and Jed Wallace.
While it’s nice to hear from the manager and the captain, the show would have no doubt been improved by some post-match, impartial reaction from a former player or two.
It’s utterly embarrassing that the EFL would allow ITV to present their product in this manner.
It’s bad enough for fans of Championship clubs so we cannot imagine how poor it is for those who wait to see League One and League Two games being replayed for a matter of seconds.
We’re a far cry away from Quest’s coverage with Colin Murray or even the show that ITV had last season.
Something is seriously wrong at the EFL’s headquarters if they think this is acceptable.
In other West Brom news, Albion are ready to sell this first-team star amid news from Leeds.