Continuity announcing is not easy after all
Scott and Chris had spent Tuesday suggesting that announcing the programmes on BBC Three sounded easy. By Friday morning they had withdrawn the claim completely.
The takeover started badly. A technical and communication mix-up meant they missed their first chance to speak at all. On the next link they were suddenly conscious of the producer counting in their ears, the strict timing and the fact that anything they said would go straight to television. Chris in particular looked horrified when they heard how the opening attempt had sounded.
They did improve. Over the evening they introduced Top Gear, a Stacey Dooley documentary, Shoplife, Live at the Electric and other programmes, read viewer tweets and gradually became comfortable enough to make jokes. Scott admitted that Jen Long’s normal job required considerably more skill than it appeared to from the radio studio.
They also met Emily, a BBC One continuity announcer with the effortlessly authoritative voice Scott wanted. She demonstrated introductions for the ten o’clock news and Homes Under the Hammer, reassuring them that even professional announcers could have a bad link.
Challenge ten ends in a draw
The final Scott versus Chris Breakfast challenge happened live during the BBC Three takeover. The idea was vocal chicken: after completing the necessary introduction to Live at the Electric, each man would try to get the final audible word in before the programme actually began.
The playback was almost too close to call. Scott squeezed in “go on, pigs”; Chris could also be heard, but his words ran over the start of the programme itself. Listener Nathan was asked to adjudicate and awarded the challenge to Chris because the point was to speak before the programme began, not over it.
That made the final fortnight score 5-5. Scott hated finishing with a draw, but after ten increasingly strange challenges there was no sensible way to settle it before Breakfast ended.
Jennifer Aniston goes international again
Meanwhile When Chris Met Jennifer Aniston was spreading rapidly. The show quoted roughly 373,000 views in its first day and noted that American outlets had begun picking it up. Chris, who had only just recovered from the international reaction to Mila Kunis, found himself in the same position again.
Listeners particularly fixated on his strip-club story and the way Jennifer calmly followed him through it. Scott was proud that a conversation which had made both of them physically nervous the previous morning now seemed to work precisely because it was so unlike an ordinary celebrity interview.
When are you too old for posters?
The final Breakfast morning also found time for a gloriously low-stakes argument: what age is too old to keep posters on a bedroom wall? A glimpse of somebody’s Skype background had started Scott wondering whether a 24-year-old with pop-star posters had crossed a line.
Callers debated university poster sales, old Britney Spears pictures, framed film art and the difference between a deliberately chosen print and something left untouched since adolescence. Framing a poster somehow made the argument even more contentious.
It was a fitting way to end the fortnight. After Hollywood, live television and competitive stunts, the show signed off Breakfast by seriously debating interior decoration.
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