deliberately upsetting some of their better paid "talent" in order to bring the wage bill down? First Ross, now Chiles. Norton next please.

Adrian Chiles has gone steadily downhill in my view. That fluky-amateur-schtik gets tiring at times and if things are to believed he has thrown his toys out about The One Show, when bringing Chris Evans in for a Friday show is clearly a great decision.

Going to ITV Sport will confirm his decline. I just hope it means Ray Stubbs will come back to the Beeb.

Then let's get back to Match of the Day just showing football and post-match interviews, scrapping the punditry and shrinking the analysis. Instantly, two six-figure (allegedly) contracts off the Beeb's outgoings.

Has anyone's career improved after leaving the BBC to join ITV? Morecambe and Wise? Des Lynam? And whatever happened to Bob Wilson, anchorman?

I think Chiles is a warm, relaxed and witty man and his presence made Match of the Day 2 much better than Saturday's version. He's far too good for gormless GMTV - shame he never took over Radio 5's breakfast show.

I totally concure. I very much enjoy MOTD 2 partly for Chiles and partly for Lee Dixon. Will Chiles end like Des Lynam? I really hope not because that was a great shame. I think in these situations ego speaks as much as money. Repeat 500 times "Your a presenter and you read off an autocue, nothing more".
GMTV must be one of the most simple minded programs ever to appear on prime time tv. When I first saw a section I though was a parody, which it is but not in that way.

One minute I think he's a bland as they come professional Brummie with bad dress sense, and the next I think he's a bone-dry national treasure in the making.

He is typical BBC. You can picture him on Nationwide. Can't imagine him on GMTV at all.

something to do if she's going to be at a loose end.

So nothing too strenuous in the fantasy department old bean :)

I thought they were only there to hold the fort while viewers are doing far more important stuff, like making a cuppa, topping up the beer, fetching a sandwich and so forth. I mean, does anyone actually tune in thinking "I really want to watch so-and-so and hear his analysis of why Gerrard and Lampard can't play in the same team"? In fairness, everyone has an opinion so they'll never please all the people all the time. They've got a thankless task at the best and I suspect that they're judged more by the number of people they don't put off than anything else.

Adrian Chiles is far preferable to the smiley smiley mien of most TV presenters. Chris Hollins I have only caught occassional sight of but he appears to have a forced jollity and false mateyness about him that makes me want to give him a smack in the chops. But then so do virtually all breakfast TV presenters in particular. Smugness seems to be their default persona.

I can't watch any of it.

Adrian Chiles doesn't come across like that, and I do wonder how he'll fit in on a breakfast sofa. I'll miss him on MOTD2.

I only rarely watch bits of the One Show. Christine Bleakley I can't quite decide about in any respect. She must do a decent job of decobwebbing Frank Lampost's ceilings though.

I was hoping they would give him MOTD1. Those gurning buffoons Linekar and Lawrenson are awful, smug pricks! I like the idea of a football presenter not pretending he knows everything, asking questions that prompt an educated answer. Richard Keys does it so well on the Champions League coverage getting Gullit and Souness to open up without interupting them. Chiles was great on MOTD2, it is perfect last programme of the weekend telly, 2 good 2 bad, then bed I for one will miss him, especially with West Brom up next season.

i'm more interested in the guests they are going to have though, by the way I had to laugh at that Sun ad with Terry Venables singing maybe he should sing the national anthem before each game !

show how it should be done tonight on Sky. EG's insights into life at Barcelona and under Mourinho at Chelsea were brilliant. Keys set him up with the questions we wanted answers to and let Eidur educate us. On top of that Souness was as honest and knowledgeable as always, wonderful television. Sky are so good at this stuff part of me wishes they could do the World Cup.

So where's Steve Rider. Semis beneath him or toys out of pram.

Can't say I'm all that surprised, he seems very popular with the Beeb right now. I didn't see his footy coverage on Five but I must admit I'm addicted to Fighting Talk.

Having said that, it's a pity James Richardson was overlooked.

whoever thought we'd be talking about Mayo as 'heavyweight' back when he was on R1?

Even if the game's awful, the commercial network may tell Chiles to talk it up a tad; can't be having honesty. He's a warm welcome of a presenter, although he may suffer from the restricted time allotted either side of the adverts.

Colin Murray deserves a chance, having skilfully held together Five's football coverage despite the cruel disability of being paired with Stan Collymore.

Next move for the BBC should be to sort out the Football League Show, which manages to alienate the Saturday-sozzled post-MOTD audience. No wonder: although he's improved over the season, the willing but limited Manish Bhasin can't hold a candle to Mark Chapman, and if the BBC can't find a better pundit than Steve Claridge, we're better of without. But most importantly we don't need anyone (female or otherwise) perched on a desk reading out the unnecessary views of Steve From Streatham.