Kelly Somers

Last updated

Kelly Somers
Kelly Somers pitch side.jpg
Somers in 2023
Born
Kelly Elizabeth Somers

(1990-12-21) 21 December 1990 (age 33)
Watford, Hertfordshire, England
Occupation(s)Journalist, presenter

Kelly Elizabeth Somers (born 21 December 1990) is a British sports presenter and reporter, and a regular contributor to football coverage on radio and television in the UK. Among her presenting credits are appearances on the BBC, Talksport, Premier League Productions (PLP) and Optus Sport. On the BBC she has appeared on programmes such as Final Score , where she provides English Football League coverage alongside Mark Clemmit and Match of the Day . She can also be seen presenting Premier League Football coverage for Amazon Prime.

Contents

Life and career

Born in Watford, Hertfordshire, Somers was educated at the town's Parmiter's School and gained work experience in journalism at the Watford Observer during her summer holidays. At the age of nine, during the 1999–2000 football season, she had won a writing competition held by the Watford Observer after she entered it with a 200-word report on Watford's 1–1 draw with Leicester. After attending Loughborough University, she secured a place at Nottingham Trent University to study for a postgraduate qualification in broadcast journalism, but was also offered a position at AFC Bournemouth. [1] [2] After four years with that club's media department, she moved to Premier League Productions, then became a freelance reporter. [2] [3]

She has worked for a number of media outlets, including the BBC and Talksport. In 2018 she presented coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup for Optus Sport, [4] and in 2019 presented the BBC's coverage of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. [3] [5] Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which required many activities, including football, to cease for a while, she was part of the reporting team to cover one of the first matches to be played when football was allowed to resume in June 2020. The game, which saw Bournemouth take on Crystal Palace, was also the first Premier League match to be shown live on BBC television, and the first top-level match to be aired by BBC television since 1988. [6] In August 2020, she became the sixth woman to present an edition of Match of the Day when she provided coverage of the 2020 FA Community Shield, and in 2019 presented the BBC's coverage of the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship. [4] She is also a regular presenter on BBC One's The Women's Football Show and Football Focus . [2] Her other BBC roles have included providing coverage of England's progress during UEFA Euro 2020, [7] and the 2022 FIFA World Cup. [4]

In June 2022, Somers became part of the reporting team for Channel 4's coverage of the UEFA Nations League. [2] [4] [8]

On 11 March 2023, she was one of several sports presenters working for the BBC who announced they would not appear on air following the BBC's decision to remove Gary Lineker from Match of the Day after controversial comments he made about the UK government's Illegal Migration Bill. It had initially been reported Somers would stand in for Alex Scott on Football Focus, but Somers subsequently announced she would not present the programme. [9] [10]

Television

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Lineker</span> English footballer (born 1960)

Gary Winston Lineker is an English sports broadcaster and former professional footballer. Lineker is the only player to have been the top goalscorer in England with three clubs: Leicester City, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. He also played for Barcelona in Spain, and won 80 caps for England. His media career began with the BBC, where he has presented the flagship football programme Match of the Day since the late 1990s, the longest tenure of any MOTD presenter. Lineker is also the BBC's lead presenter for live football matches, including coverage of international tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup. He has also worked for Al Jazeera Sports, Eredivisie Live, NBC Sports Network, and BT Sport's coverage of the UEFA Champions League.

Talksport, owned by News Broadcasting, is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The station was originally launched as Talk Radio UK in 1995.

<i>Match of the Day</i> Television series

Match of the Day is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary Lineker, with regular analysis from fellow former players Alan Shearer and Ian Wright, and occasional relief analysts such as Micah Richards, Danny Murphy, Jermaine Jenas, Martin Keown, and Dion Dublin.

Kelly Cates is a Scottish presenter, currently working for Sky Sports, BBC Radio 5 Live, and ESPN.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Hill</span> Australian television presenter

Simon Hill is an English football commentator based in Australia. He is also a gifted musician and vocalist, specialising on the Drums. He plays in several bands-

Raymond J. Stubbs is an English broadcaster and former footballer. He worked as a presenter for the BBC, ESPN and BT Sport, and now works for Talksport radio. His most recent television role was presenting the coverage of the 2024 World Seniors Snooker Championship, which was broadcast on Channel 5 in May 2024.

Clive Tyldesley is an English television sports broadcaster. He was ITV's senior football commentator from 1998 until 2020. In that role, he led the ITV commentary team at five World Cups and five European Championships and was lead commentator on seventeen UEFA Champions League finals and nine FA Cup finals for ITV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Scott (footballer, born 1984)</span> English footballer and sports commentator (born 1984)

Alexandra Virina Scott is an English sports presenter, pundit, and former professional footballer who mostly played as a right-back for Arsenal in the FA WSL. She made 140 appearances for the England national team and represented Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Stephen Robert Bower is an English football commentator, one of the main voices for BBC TV's Match of the Day, culminating in being part of the commentary teams for the 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 FIFA World Cups. Bower commentated on New Zealand's historic draw with Italy and Argentina's 4–1 win over South Korea amongst others. He can also be heard on TNT Sports covering the Europa League, Serie A, and the Bundesliga, NBCSN covering the Premier League in the US, and ESPN covering international matches. He is the lead presenter on world feed Premier League Productions and presents Premier League football for Amazon Prime Video UK. Previous work includes Setanta Sports, ESPN UK, and MUTV.

Peter Donald Drury is a British sports commentator who currently works for Sky Sports and NBC Sports in the United States as the lead commentator for its Premier League and EFL Cup coverages.

Rebecca Lowe is an English-American television presenter and anchor who works for NBC and NBC Sports. She previously worked at the BBC, Setanta Sports UK and ESPN UK.

Football on 5 is the principal football programme on Channel 5 in the UK. The show first ran from May 1997 until July 2012. The show returned in August 2015 under the name Football League Tonight. For the 2016–17 Football League season the Football on 5 name was revived with the highlights show now called Football on 5: The Championship and Football on 5: Goal Rush being broadcast from 9pm-10.30pm on a Saturday with a repeat on Sunday morning. The show itself was initially sponsored by Wilkinson Sword, and would eventually be sponsored by Soccernet.com, Peugeot and SEAT, among others.

Matt Smith is a British broadcaster who worked with ITV Sport between 2001 and 2015. He currently presents TNT Sports' coverage of Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, Europa League, Conference Football and England Under 21 matches.

Jacqueline Anne Oatley is an English broadcaster who works as a football commentator for Sky Sports and other broadcasters, calling games at the FIFA World Cup, Premier League, FA Women's Super League, UEFA Champions League, NWSL and UEFA international matches. She was also a sports presenter on Quest TV covering the English Football League, a podcast host for The Athletic, and is current anchor for ITV Sport's live darts coverage. In 2007, she became the first female commentator on the flagship BBC One football highlights programme Match of the Day, which she also presented once in March 2015.

In the United Kingdom, sporting events are broadcast on several national television networks, as well as radio. Many of the sporting events are listed online or in different kind of apps. These apps are mainly designed by sport fans who want to have an easy way to find when a certain game or match is played, as well as when a race starts or which channel is broadcasting the olympic games etc.

Reshmin Chowdhury is a British sports journalist broadcaster and event host. She currently lead presents live Premier League football on Talksport every Saturday morning in GameDay Exclusive. She presents live coverage of the Women's Super League and major women's football tournaments for BBC Sport. She has worked across all football coverage with BT Sport for 9 years, including most notably the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League the FA Cup and the UEFA Europa Conference League. She recently fronted the FIFA World Cup in Qatar for BeIN Sports, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games with Eurosport and Discovery Plus, and presented for ITV Sport during UEFA Euro 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seema Jaswal</span> British television and radio presenter

Seema Jaswal is a British sports journalist, radio and television presenter currently working for BT Sport, ITV, BBC, DAZN and the Premier League. Jaswal presented the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 with ITV. Jaswal is the first woman to present a Men’s World Cup Quarter final for a UK Broadcaster – Morocco vs Portugal for ITV. Jaswal was also the main presenter for the historic all-female on-screen panel for a Men’s World Cup game – Saudi Arabia vs Poland.

Optus Sport is an Australian group of sports channels, owned by Optus launched on 13 July 2016. The network was launched after Optus outbid the incumbent Foxtel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Woods (English presenter)</span> English television presenter working for ITV

Laura Woods is an English presenter working for ITV, Amazon Prime Video, and TNT Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jules Breach</span> British television presenter

Jules Breach is a British sports broadcaster for TNT Sports and Channel 4.

References

  1. ↑ McElwee, Molly (25 November 2022). "Kelly Somers interview: Working as an England reporter 'can be really brutal'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Matthews, Anthony (14 November 2022). "BBC England reporter Kelly Somers on World Cup, Watford and career". Watford Observer . Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Who has joined BBC boycott in solidarity with Gary Lineker?". The Independent . 11 March 2023. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Tongue Tied Management — Kelly Somers". Tonguetiedmedia.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  5. ↑ Shaw, Neil (11 March 2023). "Who is boycotting the BBC is solidarity with Gary Lineker". WalesOnline. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  6. ↑ "Thirty-two years on, live top-flight football returns to the BBC". The Guardian. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  7. ↑ "UEFA Men's Euro 2020". BBC. 20 May 2021. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  8. ↑ "Channel 4 announces presenting and commentator line-up for England's UEFA Nations League matches". Channel 4. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  9. ↑ Heath, Lucie (11 March 2023). "Football Focus axed after Alex Scott pulls out of presenting as BBC crisis snowballs". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  10. ↑ Sands, Katie (11 March 2023). "Football Focus and Final Score off air today as stars pull out over Lineker row". Wales Online. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.