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''Football League Tonight'' was a football highlights programme on
Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. The show covered the
English Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...
and its cup competitions; the
EFL Cup
The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...
and the
EFL Trophy
The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...
. It was replaced for the
2018–19 season by ''
EFL on Quest
''EFL on Quest'' was a football highlights programme on the Quest channel in the United Kingdom. The programme covered the English Football League, taking over from Channel 5's '' Football League Tonight''.
History
Starting from the 2018–1 ...
''.
The show was sponsored by
Sky Bet
Sky Betting & Gaming is a British-based gambling company, owned by Flutter Entertainment, with headquarters in Leeds, West Yorkshire and offices in Sheffield & Solihull. Sky Betting & Gaming consists of five core brands: Sky Bet, Sky Vegas, Sky ...
(also sponsors of the Football League),
Ginsters
Ginsters is a company based in Callington in Cornwall, in the south-west of England. The largest pasty maker in the UK in turnover, it specialises in making mass-produced pasties, sausage rolls, sandwiches, pasta bowls and other savoury snacks. ...
and Evans Halshaw.
Background
Channel 5 regularly covered football from its launch in 1997, including the
Scottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...
,
Serie A
The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...
, the
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
and international football, but Football on 5 had been off air for three years after losing the rights to the Europa League. In May 2015 Channel 5 won the rights to broadcast highlights for the Football League and the Football League Cup from the
2015–16 in a three-year deal. The contract succeeded the
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...
's six-year coverage of the league with ''
The Football League Show
''The Football League Show'' is a BBC One football television show, primarily hosted by Manish Bhasin. It features match highlights from the Championship, League One and League Two. It began on 8 August 2009, at 11:45 pm and immediately f ...
'' and gave Channel 5 their first foray into English domestic league football. The highlights show was agreed to be broadcast at 9 pm, around an hour and a half before the typical ''
Match of the Day
''Match of the Day'' (abbreviated to ''MOTD'') is a football highlights programme, typically broadcast on BBC One on Saturday nights, during the Premier League season. The show's current presenter is former England international striker Gary L ...
'' slot; previously the BBC had shown ''The Football League Show'' after ''Match of the Day''.
Format
Initially, the show was named ''Football League Tonight'' and its format was largely similar to its BBC predecessor, ''The Football League Show''. However, early episodes featured a studio audience and match highlights from one division were not shown together. The live audience was scrapped midway through the first season and the show soon reverted to showing highlights from the Championship, followed by League One and finishing with League Two. The title was later changed to "Football on 5".
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
highlights were originally shown under the name ''Capital One Cup Tonight'', taking the name of the title sponsor of the competition. For
2016–17, the programme followed suit of its counterpart, becoming ''Football on 5: The EFL Cup''.
Presenters and pundits
For the 2015–16 season,
George Riley and
Kelly Cates
Kelly Cates (née Dalglish) is a Scottish presenter, currently working for Sky Sports, Radio 5 Live, and ESPN.
Early life
Born in Glasgow, Kelly is the eldest of four children of former Celtic and Liverpool player and manager Sir Kenny Dalgl ...
from
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...
were chosen to be the presenters of the show. Cates had also worked on football coverage for
ITV Sport
ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.[ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...](_blank)
and
Talksport, whilst Riley has worked for BBC TV and radio on coverage of rugby league, football, darts and snooker. Both hosted coverage of the Football League, with Cates presenting League Cup highlights alone.
Lynsey Hipgrave Lynsey Hipgrave (née Horn; born 6 September 1979) is an English television, radio presenter and journalist, currently working for BT Sport.
Broadcasting career Radio
Hipgrave's initial break came on Manchester radio station Galaxy 102 where she p ...
from
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...
's ''Danny Baker Show'' and
BT Sport
BT Sport is a group of broadcasting of sports events, pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports#Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe properties, Warner Bros. Dis ...
replaced Cates the following season.
A number of commentators were used for the programme, the main one being Paul Walker, who produces commentary for the Pitch International World Feed, who also worked for the BBC on ''The Football League Show''. Other commentators included
Dave Farrar
Dave Farrar is a British broadcaster, specialising in television football commentary. He was Eurosport's number one commentator for ten years, joining the network in 1999 after spells with BBC Radio Lancashire and the BBC World Service as a repl ...
, Martin Fisher and John Roder. Channel 5 also used
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
commentators for their match highlight coverage such as
Bill Leslie,
Daniel Mann
Daniel Chugerman (August 8, 1912 – November 21, 1991), known professionally as Daniel Mann, was an American stage, film and television director.
Originally trained as an actor by Sanford Meisner, between 1952 and 1987 he directed over 31 feat ...
and Gary Weaver. Match reporters included Dave Beckett,
Sue Thearle
Sue Thearle is a British journalist. She presented on the now defunct Setanta Sports News. She is currently a relief presenter on the BBC's 24-hour news channel BBC News. She was previously a sports presenter on the channel and on BBC Breakfast. ...
, Richard Henwood,
Nick Halling, Dan Mason,
Dan O'Hagan
Daniel O'Hagan is a freelance football commentator and TV presenter as well as covering the UEFA Champions League for SBS in Australia and BT Sport in England. Formerly he was the voice of the world feed for the French Football League. He is best ...
, Tom Skippings, Chris Ford and Matt Williams.
The show had a mixture of former players and managers as pundits;
Adam Virgo
Adam John Virgo (born 25 January 1983) is a former professional footballer, who now works as a pundit and commentator.
Playing career
Early career
From the age of seven Virgo played for the St. Aubyns Preparatory School football team. At 13 h ...
was the most frequent pundit having appeared on both Cup and League highlights shows. Other pundits that appeared on the show were
Michael Gray,
Mark Bright
Mark Abraham Bright (born 6 June 1962) is an English sports correspondent and former footballer.
Born to a Gambian father and English mother, he was adopted into a foster family in Stoke-on-Trent at an early age. He played non-league football ...
,
Gus Poyet
Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez (; born 15 November 1967) is a Uruguayan professional football manager and former footballer. He is currently the head coach of the Greece national football team.
Poyet played as a midfielder and began his car ...
,
Alex McLeish
Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps for ...
,
Jamie Cureton,
Clinton Morrison
Clinton Hubert Morrison (''né'' Chambers; born 14 May 1979) is a former professional footballer who played as a forward. Since his retirement from playing he works as a pundit.
Morrison began his career at local side Crystal Palace in 1998, f ...
,
Chris Iwelumo
Christopher Robert Iwelumo (; born 1 August 1978) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played as a striker.
Iwelumo started his career with St Mirren before moving to Danish club Aarhus Fremad for two years. A move to Stoke City ...
and
Karl Robinson
Karl Robinson (born 13 September 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Oxford United.
Playing career
Robinson was born in Rainhill, Merseyside. He played for Caernarfon Town, Bamber Bri ...
.
On 22 July 2017, it was reported that break clauses had been activated in Riley and Hipgrave's contracts and they would be replaced by
Colin Murray
Colin Murray (born Luke Wright on 10 March 1977) is a Northern Irish radio and television presenter. In 2010, he became host of BBC Television's ''Match of the Day 2'' on BBC Two, while still anchoring shows on BBC Radio 5 Live, including '' 5 ...
for the 2017–18 season.
Reception
Channel 5 reportedly failed to bring in enough viewers, and therefore decided not to renew the contract with the EFL. Some had been critical of the broadcaster's coverage of the EFL.
References
External links
*{{IMDb title, id=4902194, title=Football League Tonight
Channel 5 (British TV channel) original programming
English Football League on television
2015 British television series debuts
Football mass media in the United Kingdom
2010s British sports television series
English-language television shows