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A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (
play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...
) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the phrase "color commentator" is now rarely used in
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
as the role is now more commonly known in the USA as "game analyst" or "match analyst". The person may also be referred to as a summariser (outside North America) or analyst (a term used throughout the English-speaking world). The color analyst and main commentator will often exchange comments freely throughout the broadcast, when the main commentator is not describing the action. The color commentator provides expert
analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...
and background information, such as
statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...
, strategy, and injury reports on the
team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to inf ...
s and athletes, and occasionally
anecdote An anecdote is "a story with a point", such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Occasionally humorous ...
s or light humor. Color commentators are often former athletes or
coaches Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...
of the sport being broadcast. The term ''color'' refers to levity and insight provided by a secondary announcer. A sports color commentator customarily works alongside the play-by-play broadcaster.


United States and Canada

Commentary teams typically feature one professional commentator describing the passage of play, and another, usually a former player or
coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...
, providing supplementary input as the game progresses. Color commentators usually restrict their input to times that the ball or the puck is out of play, or there is no significant action on the field or the court. They usually defer to the main commentator when a shot on goal or another significant event occurs. That sometimes results in them being talked over or cut short by the primary commentator. Former players and managers also appear as
pundits A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowle ...
and carry out a similar role to that of the co-commentator during the
pre-game show A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger fix ...
before a given contest and the
post-game show A post-game, postgame, or post-match show is a TV or radio presentation that occurs immediately after the live broadcast of a major sporting event. Contents may include: * replays of key moments in the game. * interviews with players, coaches and ...
after it. In American motorsports coverage, there may be as many as two color commentators in the
booth Booth may refer to: People * Booth (surname) * Booth (given name) Fictional characters * August Wayne Booth, from the television series ''Once Upon A Time'' *Cliff Booth, a supporting character of the 2019 film ''Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' ...
for a given broadcast. In the 2010s, broadcasts of
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
began to employ "rules analysts", who provide opinions and insights on calls made by
officials An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their s ...
. They are typically former officials, such as Mike Pereira. Other broadcast sports have since followed with implementing rules analysts as well, including the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...
and the
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
.


United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the term "color commentator" is largely unknown. The equivalent role is usually called "summariser" but other terms used are "analyst", "pundit" or simply "co-commentator". Cricket coverage on
ESPNcricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...
uses similar terminology.


Australia and New Zealand

The term is not used in Australia or New Zealand. Those giving the analysis alongside the main commentator are sometimes said to be giving additional or expert analysis, or "special comments", or they may be referred to as "expert commentators".


Latin America

For soccer broadcasts on Latin American sports television channels, such a commentator is called a ''comentarista'' in both Spanish and Portuguese and contrasts with the ''narrador'', ''locutor'' (Spanish and Portuguese) or ''relator'' (Portuguese) who leads the transmission. The term "''color''" is not used or translated.


References

{{reflist, 30em * Sports mass media people Broadcasting occupations