Long running BBC quiz show A Question Of Sport has been axed after more than five decades on the air.
The BBC have confirmed that A Question Of Sport has ceased production after fifty three years on the air.
It began in 1970, with David Vine as host, and although the show was not on screens for two years in the 1970s, it had remained in continuous production since 1978.
A Question Of Sport really took off under the stewardship of David Coleman in the 1980s – the 1989 episode featuring Princess Anne as one of the guests got a whopping nineteen million viewers.
Former tennis player Sue Barker then hosted the show for 24 years, before being replaced by Paddy McGuinness in 2021. This was also when the show underwent a significant revamp, with non-sporting celebrities being invited to appear as guests, transforming the show into more of a light entertainment programme.
The most recent team captains were GB hockey star Sam Quek and former England rugby union international Ugo Monye.
Former team captains include rugby union players Matt Dawson and Bill Beaumont, cricketers Ian Botham and Phil Tufnell, and ex-footballers Ally McCoist and Emlyn Hughes.
Low viewing figures are being cited as the reason for the show’s cancellation. The show regularly received four to five million viewers in Barker’s tenure, while under McGuinness it fell below one million. A spokesperson for the BBC insisted it was “not the final whistle” and the programme could come back in the future. The BBC were also quick to confirm that it would not be sold tona rival broadcaster, saying that ” A Question of Sport is not going to appear on any other channels,” he added. “It is the BBC’s intellectual property.”
However, Barker, Dawson and Tufnell continue to tour A Question Of Sport Live to venues up and down the country, recently wrapping up a nationwide trek.
