It's all over now
End predicted for sports quiz
They Think It’s All Over is being threatened with the axe in favour of more ‘heart-warming’ comedy, according to newspaper reports.
Female BBC executives are said to feel the sports quiz is too laddish – and would prefer to see more “uplifting” shows on screen.
But there are also more pragmatic reasons: audiences for the nine-year-old show have slumped from a one-time peak of 16 million to around a quarter of that figure.
Ratings are likely to suffer more as the final three editions of the current series have been relegated from a 9.30pm Thursday slot to 10.35pm on Mondays – another sign corporation chiefs have lost confidence in the show,
According to The Sunday Times, BBC1 controller Lorraine Heggessey and Jane Lush, head of entertainment, have been “gunning” for the series for 18 months.
An unnamed BBC producer told the paper: “There is a majority of women in charge of commissioning at the BBC these days and all those Janes and Kates and Sophies can’t bear a series in which a group of lads sit around, talk about sport and take the piss out of each other.
“They have been gunning for it for a while now. The comedy buzzword at the BBC these days is ‘uplifting’ and they don’t think mocking famous people is uplifting.”Published: 3 Oct 2004
