Ben Ikin and Paul Kent co-host NRL360 on Fox three times a week. It is potentially the very best sporting show on national television.
But it will never reach that exalted status until they ask the questions and listen to the answer without interruption.
Their guests are all top quality, with either Phil Rothfield, Andrew Webster, Paul Crawley, or Dean Ritchie, all vastly experienced and recognised sportswriters, especially on rugby league, along with the two Origin coaches Laurie Daley and Kevin Walters, both very impressive guests.
On night two, current captain of Wests Aaron Woods, and his Bulldog counterpart James Graham, and the third night legends Billy Moore, and either Benny Elias, or Danny Buderus. All five are superb guests.
The concept is brilliant, but never properly projected because of the host’s chirp.
Ikin and Kent should take a leaf out of Yvonne Sampson and Peter Sterling’s panel-hosting book. They never chirp, they pay their panels the respect they deserve.
Matty Johns and ‘Crash’ Craddock aren’t far behind, but infinitely better than Ikin and Kent.
Sampson and Sterling have taken a leaf out of the Michael Parkinson book, the greatest television interviewer of all time.
And to be fair to Ikin and Kent, they will never be as bad as the worst interviewer of all time – David Frost.
Parkinson interviewed in excess of 2000 of the world’s most famous and interesting people with Muhammad Ali rated the best, and Dame Edna Everage the most hilarious.
Fred Astaire, Orson Welles, Madonna, John Cleese, Clint Eastwood, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Alec Guinness, Mel Gibson, Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Oliva Newton-John, Joan Rivers and George Michael were some of the most famous interviews. Parkinson’s biggest disappointments he never interviewed the Queen, Sir Donald Bradman, and Frank Sinatra.
Parkinson’s greatest assets were knowing what made his guests tick, and listening to their answers. The sure way to have a flowing interview is by listening, as invariably the next question would surface from the current answer.
That was Frost’s undoing, he never listened.
He had the exclusive rights to two of the most riveting guests in Richard Nixon who resigned as US President before he was impeached, and the Shah of Persia just before he died, a man of great substance in the middle east.
Frost blew both interviews badly.
He had a clip-board on his lap with about a dozen questions. He asked the first and cut off until his brain decided his guest had enough time to answer and would butt in with a second question that totally disrupted the flow.
And he did it time after time to bomb both interviews.
I was his guest live on British breakfast television and he did the same to me, giving the impression he knew more about the concept than I did.
The interruptions really pissed me off, and about the fourth or fifth question Frost gave me was a two and a half to three minute diatribe that included three parts.
I had to smile when I asked Frost to repeat the question – Frost didn’t smile, he was fuming, but never chirped again.
It’s a damn shame Richard Nixon and the Shah of Persia didn’t do the same and we as viewers would have learned more.
Ben Ikin and Paul Kent were at it again last night, interrupting firstly Dean Ritchie, then Kevin Walters and Laurie Daley.
Zip it fellas. If you listen instead, you’ll have the best sporting show on national television. You have the widest range of the most qualified guests who have plenty of interesting answers to well-prepared questions.
Give them a chance to prove it.
Morgz
Guest
How does Andrew Fifita get to play for NSW and Tonga? Does this mean Shaun Johnson could be selected for NSW next season? Or is origin only anti NZ players?
Daniel Caughlan
Guest
The show is stupid hardly any different points of view as get sick of hearing same crap from Kent how he knows how to fix rugby league with captian s challenge crap ex reserve grade player thinks he has all the answers
Changa
Guest
Unfortunately Ben Ikin & Paul Kent have spent too much time producing the show and not enough homework. Buzz is getting the jump on Kent with all the scoops and Kent is getting jealous. Buzz has his ear to the ground and does stay in contact with the key contacts in the game. Buzz also talks to everyday fans in person, he loves it! Kent see's himself as a celebrity and is removed from the real world. It's fair to say that Cronulla often play a grubby style of football. They whinge and they are in the referees face all the time. The 2nd half of football was the most bias refereeing we have seen in 50 years. Not from Badger as he was playing a low profile. Klein was terrible and he is NOT up to refereeing 1st grade. Klein obviously has a problem with Cronulla tactics of whinging and protesting. So much that he disregarded everything they said and awarded everything to the Cowboys in the 2nd half. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE KNOCK BACK RULE? We counted 5 knock backs from Cronulla that were all ruled as knock ons. One of the last plays of the game when Valentine Holmes ran the ball up and it was punched out of his hands AND WENT BACK was ruled a Sharks knock on. Buzz said what had to be said. Ikin and Kent are totally out of touch if they think that refereeing was up to standard! Kent blamed the Sharks errors; please tell my Mr Kent, What team in history has ever played the perfect game? he cherry picked some mistakes at the end of the game and said that's why they lost. So the Cowboys didn't make any mistakes? Like the game crowds, NRL 360 ratings will fall as these 2 puppets had their heads stuck in the sand.
Bob king
Guest
Ben Ikin is the worst at it. His opinion has to be number one. The others don't count. He grates on me every show but I watch it for the news on league and Kenty has very good opinions.
NRL Fan
Guest
Definitely not a fan of Paul Kent (may have misspelled his name again...) ! There's been a lot of questions asked about who he played for and what the circumstances were. He started in 1 first grade game for Parramatta against the North Sydney Bears in round 20 1989 (Saturday 12th August). He was replaced with Jason Bell after 40 seconds by coach John Monie in order to exploit the loophole at the time to qualify Jason bell for the eels reserve grade finals series. The following URL contains the full post match write-up: http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122276003?searchTerm=(Parramatta%20OR%20Parra%20OR%20Eels)&searchLimits=exactPhrase|||anyWords=Parramatta+Parra+Eels|||notWords|||requestHandler|||dateFrom=1989-08-12|||dateTo=1989-08-13|||l-advstate=National|||l-advstate=ACT|||l-advstate=New+South+Wales|||l-advcategory=Article|||l-advcategory=Sport+And+Games|||l-word=*ignore*%7C*ignore*|||l-illustrated=*ignore*%7C*ignore*|||sortby The official NRL record is at: http://www.rugbyleagueproject.org/seasons/nswrl-1989/round-20/parramatta-vs-north-sydney/summary.html Recently on NRL 360 on Fox when asked about his only 1st grade game, Kent lied that he had a torn hamstring that day. Why lie about it? If he can't even be honest about that, how can he be trusted to be truthful about anything else?
David C
Guest
Agree wholeheartedly.
Paul
Guest
Ikin is the only one that talk any sense except for the other ex players cause all the journos are coming from a self absorbed point of view or more to the point a point of view that helps them sell papers that no one reads anymore
Eden
Guest
Futurama?
Paul D
Roar Guru
Because he's mates with the owners of the site
Bugo
Guest
not sure why roar publish David Lord articles.
Magnus M. Østergaard
Roar Guru
It depends on how you look at it
peeeko
Guest
it is woeful and jingoistic
Oingo Boingo
Guest
Mate I'm happy to admit I had my wires crossed and was referring to the maniac that replaced him in the late seventies. You are correct it has become just another islumic hell hole as a result , with a bit of help from foreign oil companies etc Etc .
Swanny
Guest
Afl 360. Miles ahead of the rest
Swanny
Guest
Gerard whatley on afl 360 is terrific All sports media should learn from the master Interviewer
Jacko
Guest
Kent is certainly a member...I dont mind ikin
Justin Kearney
Guest
I agree.
Griffo
Guest
What about Foxtel Anytime?
Kaks
Roar Guru
Say what you want, Iran under the Shah was a happy and relatively free place. Look at Iran now compared to the 50's, 60's and 70's where it was quite 'westernised'. Chalk and Cheese. No wonder the youth of Iran today want another revolution.
Steve
Guest
Queenslanders only is actually surprisingly good too.