Everything, Everything

I was watching the highlight show of Soccer AM with my brother earlier tonight, and I miss Tim Lovejoy. Andy Goldstein is missing that confidence and sharpness that Lovejoy had. Helen's trying to pick up the slack, but it's the wrong dynamic. Soccer AM was never an equal partnership like Ant and Dec, it was more like Batman and Robin. You can't lose Batman and hope to still have a series. Helen did her best to carry Goldstein, but the material wasn't really up to much either - probably because Lovejoy wrote a lot of Soccer AM and also because a lot of the crew (Fenners, Tramp and Sheephead) left for his new show on Channel 5. The first soccerette this season was Michelle Smith, whose interesting fact was that she can have plenty of fun in a lift. Goldstein stretched it out with a huge number of cut sequences: the photos she submitted, the photos of them in a lift, the parachute jump, the fake landing, and even an interlude with supermodel Paula Hamilton teaching him how to strut his stuff. As he walked up and down the catwalk with Michelle, it underlined what a poor substitute he is for Lovejoy. Soccer AM has been dealt the same fatal blow that many other morning shows have encountered. The Big Breakfast was Chris Evans and Gaby Roslin, it lost its way when Chris left, and continue to crash and burn once Roslin departed, but they got lucky with Johnny Vaughan and Denise van Outen. Can Soccer AM find the right foil for Helen Chamberlain?