A new contender for worst broadcaster of all time (Leah Hextall)

[JianYang]

No way she’s worse than Cassie Campbell. And I say this not as a sexist but someone who likes good play by play and color commentary, that’s it!

I don't find Cassie to be awful. I just think she's very generic.

I think the TNT crew on the nba has it figured out. People aren't tuning in so much for some timid observations. Its sports, it's supposed to be fun. What they have first and foremost are colorful personalities, and a guy who with authentic opinions witbout a care of what people think.

 

[Chaels Arms]

I don't think she's inherently bad but she sounded like she didn't have much experience. When you have her last name you probably get to jump a few rungs. She might have been better served doing a couple of years of full time pbp in a lower exposure league.

 

[Look Up]

Not a professional broadcaster.

 

[Muffin]

Sister I believe

Also I thought people were overreacting when they were calling her brutal this season, I tuned in and she was even worse than I thought she’d be.

Cousin.

 

[BonMorrison]

Yeah I didn't like her much tbh but I'll give her a season to improve before writing her off entirely.

 

[QuadDeuces]

I snap muted the broadcast within 30 seconds of the start because of how bad she is.

 

[Bizz]

only slightly worse than Forslund

 

[tarheelhockey]

Very few people are complaining about ALL female broadcasters. Quit it with the straw man. People are complaining about her because she's dismal at her job, and the only reason she got the job is because she's a woman. If Leah Hextall was Lee Haxtell then he'd still be busting his ass four levels lower than the NHL. End of the f***ing story.

It’s not a straw man if people really are saying it.

And you yourself acknowledged in this post that some people really are saying it, right here in this thread.

If you’re not one of those people, great. Nothing to get defensive about. As I said, there’s nothing wrong with criticizing her performance.

 

[Reaser]

People already knew she was bad and that this was coming. One of the all-time great and memorable college hockey games happened in March and after the game was over there was only two types of comments, neither of which was about the actual game:

From weirdos that get off on weird agendas and who we know didn't actually watch the game: "The pbp was great! She was amazing!"

From regular people that actually watched the game: "Worst announcer ever" and more comments about how she didn't know what period it was or what OT it was than there was about the actual game. Nonsense getting forced like that took away from the sport on the ice and took away from the players that played. Get back to school and excited to go look at what people are saying about that legendary game you just played in and, "oh, all people are talking about is the announcer because she was horrible and botched call after call." Sad, but that's what some people want, evidently.

 

[Kimota]

Rewatching the condensed highlights i think most of the game was fine but in more stressful situations of the game she was really not good. Also the goal call in OT was really bad.

Good God all mighty.

 

[egelband]

No comment on the announcing, but the Hulu closed captioning was beyond belief. The person had never seen a hockey game, mishearing most hockey phrases, and didn't know any hockey names. They were totally overwhelmed and just lunging at words, writing soup at the screen. I saw them write about players like "Angela," "Janine," and at one point the person repeatedly wrote "Rihanna" was doing this and that out there. Hakanpaa was Hawkey Pot.

I believe the cc is usually automated. Sounds like they need to tune up their glossary though.

 

[moog35]

She’s almost as bad as Jennifer Botterill

 

[njdevscup30]

Watching the condensed highlights I didn't think she was bad. A couple "here they come" generic statements which weren't great. Her voice is certainly not what I'm used to, but I think if we hear women broadcasting enough we'd get used to it.

 

[Legionnaire]

Watching the condensed highlights I didn't think she was bad. A couple "here they come" generic statements which weren't great. Her voice is certainly not what I'm used to, but I think if we hear women broadcasting enough we'd get used to it.

Why should we have to get used to an inferior product?

Thats some good marketing going on...

 

[Sean Garrity]

She was atrocious on the Ducks broadcast that she did. She's smart, she knows her stuff, but seems out of her depth and at this point of her career seems like she either needs practice at a lower level or at an analyst desk. I think she has all the prerequisites to be solid, just needs practice and ESPN should've given her that IMO.

 

[Pavels Dog]

Are there though? I honestly think that women don't have the same strength in their speaking voice as men to be able to pull off pbp commentary.

That is so dumb and exactly the kind of thinking that holds back progress.

No different than men there are women with deeper voices or lighter voices, higher pitched or lower pitched, stronger or softer, etc etc. You using anecdotal evidence to generalize is misogony 1-0-1.
"My wife is too short to reach the top cupboards, that means all women are short"
"This woman isn't a great PBP person, that means no women can do it"

In the SHL we have Lena Sundqvist who does a great job. The haters have kinda died off when over time it's become obvious she's actually good at her job and can easily hold her own against her male counterparts.
In other sports as well as radio it's also long been more common to hear female main or color commentary, at least over here.

 

[cjm502]

Rewatching the condensed highlights i think most of the game was fine but in more stressful situations of the game she was really not good. Also the goal call in OT was really bad.

AHHHHH, MY EARS!!!!!

Edit: That YouTube comment section

 

[Cygnusx1018]

Better than Sean McDonough at least

 

[Mount Suribachi]

That is so dumb and exactly the kind of thinking that holds back progress.

No different than men there are women with deeper voices or lighter voices, higher pitched or lower pitched, stronger or softer, etc etc. You using anecdotal evidence to generalize is misogony 1-0-1.

And you using edge cases and exceptions to deny basic human biology is progressivism 101. If you're going to sit there with a straight face and tell me that men don't have deeper voices than women then theres nothing for us to talk about.

 

[MuckOG]

I've seen several posts in this thread saying that women's voices aren't suitable for commenting, which is absolutely sexist.

What is sexist about preferring a PBP announcer that speaks in a deeper octave than most women can reach?

Find me a woman announcer that can reach those deeper octaves and I will have no issue with her.

Its just incredibly difficult to the follow a game called by Hextall or Pam Ward. Nothing against them personally, but Im not fans of their work. Plenty of male broadcasters I dont like either.

 

[thekernel]

Not my favorite but I'd still take her over the Minnesota, Boston, Pittsburgh, Calgary, Edmonton and Colorado broadcasters...and I'm sure there's more

 

[Pavels Dog]

And you using edge cases and exceptions to deny basic human biology is progressivism 101. If you're going to sit there with a straight face and tell me that men don't have deeper voices than women then theres nothing for us to talk about.

The fact is there’s no need to have a deep voice to be a good broadcaster, you just want there to be some arbitrary reason for why women shouldn’t be given opportunity.

With that said, if you’ve never met/seen/heard women with deeper than average voices you need to get out more.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Not my favorite but I'd still take her over the Minnesota, Boston, Pittsburgh, Calgary, Edmonton and Colorado broadcasters...and I'm sure there's more

Exactly.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised there's another thread about how bad a female broadcaster is. It's been interesting to read the complaining here first then actually hear the broadcaster in question. You'd think Cassie Campbell shrieked the whole time. Leah Hextall sounds green but is hardly the worst.

 

[metalan2]

Yeah I didn't like her much tbh but I'll give her a season to improve before writing her off entirely.

She's literally only there because she's a female and is unlistenable. I have to mute or not watch the games she calls. It's not just her voice, it is the way that she hardly understands the flow of the game. It's all around bad.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

AHHHHH, MY EARS!!!!!

Edit: That YouTube comment section

Still not worst in the league by a long shot.




And yes, the Youtube comments are less thinly veiled than the ones here.