Jonathan Gould (television Presenter) - TV Presenting

TV Presenting

For two years he was presenter/coordinator of Cable 17 Sport which proved the big break. Turning freelance in 1996 he presented the sport on ITV Carlton's London Tonight.

He started presenting Channel Five's coverage of live Major League Baseball shortly after it (and the channel) were launched in 1997, taking over from original presenter Tommy Boyd on MLB on Five. When the soap Family Affairs ended, MLB on Five became the longest surviving programme on the five schedule.

Gould is a passionate fan of the Atlanta Braves and would defend them on the show with regular calls of "G'won the Braves" when they won; his favourite player is Chipper Jones. MLB coverage had been the jewel in the crown of Five's late night schedule, and led to the station also securing late-night NFL, NHL and NBA coverage.

Gould's approach to the sport has been that of passionate supporter, constantly learning from and bouncing opinions off his co-presenters on the five TV show. These included Todd Macklin, Josh Chetwynd (who later returned as the incumbent), David Lengel (who left for a job with mlb.com covering the New York Yankees) and Mike Carlson, the channel's regular NFL analyst. He made liberal use of catchphrases, such as "Greetings fellow baseball nuts!", and "It's the last chance saloon!" Gould is a fan of Chelsea F.C. and rarely missed an opportunity to use them as an analogy in his baseball presenting. He also included a section on the show regarding fantasy baseball. His nickname on five's Baseball coverage is Gouldfish, which refers to his 'goldfish-like' memory.

In 2004, he presented the game show Memory Bank, taking turns with Rachel Pierman. Since then he presented BrainTeaser, taking turns with Alex Lovell throughout 2005.

Although BrainTeaser aired at 12:30pm and the baseball coverage ended in the early hours, an unanticipated clash occurred in October 2005 when Game 3 of the World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros went to 14 innings, causing the match to end at 7am UK time, resulting in his missing the train to Bristol to record BrainTeaser.

Subsequently Gould was seen on satellite channels Monte Carlo Roulette and Sky Poker, as well as presenting the online Fantasy Football show for TelegraphTV "Fantasy Football Friday"