P.S. We know Adrian Chiles is the first lead presenter to do two World Cups for ITV in quite some time, but how many has Matt Smith done as the second presenter. I'm sure he was there when Des Lynam was number 1.
This is only the second occasion where Matt Smith has been the second presenter and done live games at a World Cup. Although he joined ITV in 2001, in 2002 he did highlights alone, with Des Lynam and Bob Wilson on the live games (and Gabby Logan in a totally redundant secondary role doing dreadful lighter-side-of-the-World Cup items) and in 2006 he was also only on highlights with Steve Rider, Gabby Logan, Jim Rosenthal and Angus Scott (doing the clashing matches on ITV4) on live games. He also did those highlights shows from London while the live games came from the grounds.
In fact in Euro 2004 he was England reporter and while he was secondary presenter in Euro 2008, they did all the coverage from London, so 2010 was the first time Smith had actually presented a live tournament match from the country in which it was taking place.
You would think if they can get Matt Smith down there they might as well get Chiles and co. in the stadium to anchor the broadcast. Surely as one of the broadcasters of the teams playing they're entitlted to sufficient in-stadium facilities for a live broadcast, even if that isn't a studio.
Well, they may not want to do that. I remember in 1998 ITV presented virtually every match from the grounds apart from England vs Argentina which they did from their Paris studio, and ITV said the reason for that was for reasons of quality control, presumably they felt the fans would be too high-spirited if they were there. They had Jim Rosenthal and Ian Wright in the stadium and I know Rosenthal had to keep stopping Wright arguing with the Argentinean fans next to him. Also, bit of a waste of time getting a fancy studio set up and then not using it for the match most people will watch.
