Sports television play-by-play commentator Lisa Byington. Courtesy FOX Sports (U.S.)
By Oliver Tse
Email: workingnow88@workingnow88.com
Twitter: @workingnow88
Published on June 21, 2019
LOS ANGELES – Just when one thought FOX Sports (U.S.) Women’s World Cup #4 play-by-play commentator Lisa Byington has gotten the message from “Byington Goals” Part II by correcting the pronunciation of the name of Germany Head Coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg (correct pronunciation of Voss is FOS, not “VOS”) before the kickoff of the South Africa vs Germany match on June 17, 2019:
From forvo.com:
Byington and her match analyst/co-commentator, former U.S. Women’s National Team member Cat Whitehill, would proceed to mispronounce at least 6 names during their broadcast. 5 out of those 6 names belonged to Germany players including all 3 2nd-half substitutes.
Soccer match analyst/co-commentator Cat Whitehill. Courtesy FOX Sports (U.S.)
Once again, the root of the cause of the pronunciation errors made by Byington (and Whitehill as she blindly followed Byington) can be summed up by one simple broadcasting mantra: fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
During the introduction of the starting lineups, Byington mispronounced the name of the head Video Assistant Referee, Clément Turpin (correct pronounciation: klay-MOHN tur-PAIHN) of France, as “klee-MOHN tur-PAHN”.
From Forvo.com:
Byington would then mispronounce the surname of Germany forward Karla Buehl (German: Bühl; correct pronounciation: BUEL, like “fuel”) as “BOOL” as if her name were spelled “Buhl” instead of Buehl.
From forvo.com:
Byington would repeat the same error during the 66th minute of the match when Germany deployed substitute Lea Schueller (German: Schüller; correct pronounciation: SHUE-lahr). Byington incorrectly pronounced Schueller as “SHOO-ler” as if her name were spelled “Schuller”.
From forvo.com: difference between vs
During a 2-minute span beginning at the 57th minute of the match, Byington and Whitehill would mispronounce 3 German names, Carolin Simon (correct pronounciation: KAH-roh-leen SEE-mohn), Lina Magull (correct pronounciation: LEEN-nah MAH-gool) and Linda Dallmann (correct pronounciation: LEEN-dah DAHL-mahn) by placing stresses on the wrong syllable (namely the last syllable) as if all 3 names were French instead of German.
From forvo.com:
Can FOX Sports executives really trust Lisa Byington with NFL Super Bowl LIV?
So much for the notion that FOX Sports (U.S.) executives will be able to trust Lisa Byington to handle big play-by-play assignments, such as the possible “Worship at the Church of What’s Working Now” all-female alternative pay-TV broadcast (on FS1 or FS2) of NFL Super Bowl LIV in February 2020 to complement the traditional all-male broadcast booth of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman on the free over-the-air broadcast on “Big FOX” (the way Televisa Deportes of Mexico offered an all-female broadcast team as one of its four distinct presentations of the Final match of FIFA Men’s World Cup Russia 2018):
If you are FOX Sports Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Shanks, FOX Sports President of National Networks (FS1 and FS2) Mark Silverman or FOX Sports Executive Producer/Executive Vice President and Head of Productions and Operations Brad Zager, you have to be able to answer this question: can you really trust Byington to call play-by-play of an NFL Super Bowl?
After all, Byington has NOT shown any respect for her real bosses who collectively pay her talent fee via subscription revenue and purchases of products advertised, namely the VIEWERS of FOX Sports (U.S) television products, to take her Women’s World Cup play-by-play assignments seriously enough.
There was no excuse for Byington (and Whitehill) to NOT devote 90-120 minutes of preparation time BEFORE the Women’s World Cup began on June 7, 2019, to check the pronunciation of 24 German names, including the names of Germany Head Coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg (which Byington didn’t correct until she called the 3rd match involving Germany) and the names of all 23 players on the German Women’s National Team. Byington (and Whitehill) found out weeks in advance that they were assigned all 3 Women’s World Cup Group Stage matches involving Germany.
After all, 2 of Byington’s play-by-play colleagues during the 2019 Women’s World Cup, Jenn Hildreth and Derek Rae, did what they were supposed to do to prepare by checking the pronunciation of all 24 names (23 players plus the head coach) on EVERY TEAM they were assigned to cover BEFORE the Women’s World Cup had begun.
(My opinion: FOX Sports Executive Producer of World Cup Soccer David Neal took an unnecessary risk with no reward by assigning Byington instead of Rae, who spent 1 year studying in Germany when he was an undergraduate majoring in Linguistics at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, to call Women’s World Cup matches involving Germany. Rae is fluent in German and he makes several trips from his home in the Boston area to stadiums in Germany each season to call English-language play-by-play commentary of German Bundesliga matches on the world feed.)
The second leg of the German Bundesliga promotion/relegation playoff between 1. FC Union Berlin and VfB Stuttgart on May 27, 2019. Play-by-play commentator: Derek Rae (SCO). Match analyst/co-commentator: Steffen Freund (GER). Video courtesy Deutsche Fussball Liga.
Besides using an online database with crowd-sourced pronunciations by native speakers such as forvo.com, Byington (and Whitehill) could have gotten help by contacting the German Embassy or Consulate, or could have asked one of several Los Angeles-based FOX Sports colleagues who are fluent in German, notably FOX Soccer Tonight host Kate Abdo who majored in European Languages with emphasis on translations and interpreting as an undergraduate at the University of Manchester in England. Abdo had worked as a German-language sports news presenter based in Germany TWICE during her career, including as the launch anchor of German-language sports news television network Sky Sport News HD (pronounced “SKY SHPORT NEWS HAH DEH”) in Germany and Austria on December 1, 2011:
The launch of German-language pay-TV network Sky Sport News HD in Germany and Austria on December 1, 2011, with presenters Kate Abdo (ENG) and Thomas Fleischmann (GER), reporter Florian Eckl (GER) and guest expert analyst Franz “der Kaiser” Beckenbauer (GER). Video courtesy Sky Deutschland GmbH.
Byington picked up many bad habits during the past 9 years when she called play-by-play commentary of men’s and women’s college sports events on Big Ten Network (BTN), FS1, and FS2, a majority of those events had very low viewership consisting of mostly friends and family of the players involved. She prepared for Women’s World Cup matches as if those matches were Women’s College Soccer on BTN. Her carelessness, her ego, and her insufficient preparation have all caught up to her.
As legendary U.S. English-language sports television play-by-play commentator Beth Mowins said during her interview with workingnow88.com last August, a play-by-play commentator wants to EARN big assignments such as NFL Super Bowls by merit.
“If you don’t trust the singer, you won’t trust the song.” – Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean.
Opening segment of Hockey Night in Canada on April 6, 2019 with host Ron MacLean (CAN) and 85-year-old play-by-play commentator Bob Cole (CAN), who retired after 50 years as one of the voices of ice hockey on Canadian English-language television. The telecast aired across Canada on free-to-air terrestrial broadcast network Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and pay-TV network Rogers Sportsnet, and across the U.S. on pay-TV network NHL Network. Video courtesy National Hockey League (NHL)/Rogers Media.
Just because Lisa Byington has Mark Silverman as her biggest champion inside the FOX Sports (U.S.) organization, that does NOT mean Byington should get a free pass to call play-by-play of NFL Super Bowl LIV on an alternative all-female broadcast on a pay TV network (FS1 or FS2) without proving that she can be trusted to do the job professionally to the highest standards, one of which is to pronounce EVERY name correctly.
If Byington had indeed done enough damage to her reputation to cost herself a possible assignment to call play-by-play of NFL Super Bowl LIV, then Byington has no one to blame but herself.
