Dermot O'Leary

The announcer during Michael Jackson’s O2 speech had some interesting things to say about the experience later in an interview.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uA7ZEYp8tk
I wanted to touch on what I thought was strange in what he said.

Right off the bat, Dermot O’Leary says that he got a call the day before to announce Michael Jackson. That seems normal. O’Leary is a major announcer. He is best known for announcing The X Factor and Big Brother’s Little Brother, so it is pretty obvious why he was chosen. The only strange thing was he was called the day before. I’m not positive on how much notice a person is normally given when they will be an announcer at an event, but I think that it is more than a day. Even the interviewers thought that it was crazy and they questioned him over that thinking maybe he had exaggerated it a little. He stuck to his story of the day before and acted like it was no big deal, so maybe it is common, but I just don’t think so.

Later when talking about Michael Jackson giving him a hug, he says that Michael Jackson was “ripped”. That is in obvious contrast to the reports of Michael Jackson being underweight and could not lift a weight. So, which one is the truth? O’Leary had no reason to lie.

Overall, O’Leary said the whole thing “was so weird”, because basically all that was said was “this is it, because this is it, because this is it, thirty times over”. He also says Michael Jackson came to him at the beginning of the announcement to ask if the teleprompter was on. O’Leary, though, believes that Michael Jackson did not need it because all he said was “this is it, because this is it, because this is it”. I just wonder if that was the speech written on the teleprompter, because if it was I agree with O’Leary and see no reason for a teleprompter. The speech was just extremely strange and said absolutely nothing.

So why did he give it?