''The Football League Show'' is a

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

football television show, primarily hosted by

Manish Bhasin Manish Dev Bhasin (born 21 May 1976 in Leicester, England) is a sports journalist and presenter broadcasting for Premier League Productions as the face of the Premier League's global coverage to over 700 million viewers as well as the BBC in ...

. It features match highlights from the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

and

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

. It began on 8 August 2009, at 11:45 pm and immediately followed ''

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 ...

'' on Saturdays. Similar to other

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

studio shows, UK-based users of the BBC website could watch a live simulcast of the programme. The programme was made in Studio C at IMG studios, London. Football League highlights moved to Channel 5 for the 2015–2016 season, thus ending the BBC's version of the programme.

Format

The programme had a similar format to ITV's ''

Championship Goals ''The Championship'' (formerly known as ''Championship Goals'' between January 2008 and May 2008) is a British football television programme featuring highlights from the Coca-Cola Football League. It was almost always shown on Sunday mornings o ...

'', with a featured match receiving full highlights and all the goals from the other matches (thus repeating Match of the Day's format used in the early to the mid-90s). There could also be extensive highlights of any matches covered live by

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 ...

or the BBC itself. The programme was studio-based. The first ever episode featured

Steve Claridge Stephen Edward Claridge (born 10 April 1966) is an English football pundit, coach and former professional player. He was a pundit for BBC Sport football shows including ''Football Focus'' and ''The Football League Show'', until 2014 when he beca ...

and

Ian Holloway Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English professional football manager, former player, media personality and television pundit who was most recently the manager of Grimsby Town. A midfielder, he notably played in the Premier League ...

but from the second episode onwards only featured Claridge as pundit or on some occasions former

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

manager

Leroy Rosenior Leroy De Graft Rosenior (born 24 August 1964) is a football coach and pundit. He is a former footballer whose clubs included Fulham, Queens Park Rangers (for whom he appeared as a substitute in the 1986 League Cup Final), Bristol City and Wes ...

. Occasionally both Claridge and Rosenior have appeared on the same programme offering analysis of matches. When there were only Championship or League One and League Two matches played, the show was pre-recorded from the stadium of the featured match, rather than being live from the studio. These shows were often shorter than the regular ones. On 23 March 2013, the show was only 20 minutes long, this being the shortest show in the series and the first not to have a featured matches.

Presenter, commentators and reporters

The presenter of the show was

, who left

Football Focus ''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974 covering football, normally broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. From the 2009–10 season to the 2020–21 season Football Focus ...

to present. Whenever Bhasin was unavailable, the programme was hosted by Mark Chapman, Mark Clemmit, Damian Johnson or

Jason Mohammad Jason Mohammad (born 17 September 1973) is a Welsh radio and television presenter currently working for the BBC. He is the current host of ''Final Score'' on BBC One on Saturday afternoons. Personal life Mohammad was born and brought up in Car ...

. During each season, a number of reporters provided match roundups from the three divisions of the Football League. Regular reporters included Dave Beckett, Nick Halling, Paul Walker,

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 ...

, Dan Mason, Tony Lockwood, Chris Maughan, Mick Conway, Sue Thearle, James Richardson and

Jonathan Legard Jonathan Legard (born 7 July 1961 in Cardiff, Wales), is a sports journalist, best known as the lead commentator for the BBC's Formula One TV coverage in 2009 and 2010. Legard has been the BBC's motor racing and football correspondent as well a ...

. Commentators on featured matches included John Roder, Martin Fisher, Tony Gubba, Kevin Keatings, Jon Champion, Jonathan Pearce, Guy Mowbray, Simon Brotherton and Steve Wilson.

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 Mark Clemmit was the roving reporter, who visited a ground to spend the day with a team each week. This was similar in style to

Kevin Day Kevin Day (born 3 May 1961 in London) is a British stand up comedian, comedy writer and sports presenter. He came to prominence in the British alternative comedy stand up scene of the late eighties and early nineties, playing clubs like The Comed ...

's reports on ''

Match of the Day 2 ''Match of the Day 2'' is a Premier League association football, football highlights programme. It is a companion show to Match of the Day, usually broadcast on BBC One on Sunday evenings, thus facilitating coverage of the respective week's PL m ...

''.

Interactive

There was also an interactive email segment where fans expressed their points of view. These emails were read out by one of the BBC's sports news presenters, mainly

Jacqui Oatley Jacqueline Anne Oatley (born 28 December 1974) is a leading English broadcaster. She is a football commentator for Sky Sports, calling Premier League and FA Women's Super League matches. She is a sports presenter on Quest TV channel, covering ...

Lizzie Greenwood-Hughes Elizabeth Greenwood-Hughes (née Greenwood) is an English television presenter working for the BBC. She is currently a regular presenter of Sports News on the BBC News Channel and the ''BBC Weekend News''. Education She studied film and photograp ...

. This feature was dropped from the start of the 2011–12 football season.

Other programmes

The BBC's rights deal with the Football League also included the

Football League 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 ...

, where the programme was rebranded as ''The Football League Cup Show''. Highlights of the

Football League 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 Leag ...

final were also shown on the BBC, where the show was simply branded as the ''Football League Trophy Final''. Rather than being broadcast live from a studio, it was recorded pitchside from

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, the venue of the final. Highlights from the earlier rounds were available on the BBC Sport website up until the 2011–12 season. A regional spin-off programme, ''

Late Kick Off ''Late Kick Off'' is a BBC One regional television football programme which was broadcast between 2010 and 2015. Launched on 18 January 2010, it covered Football League teams on a regional or pan-regional basis in a magazine-style format. The sh ...

'', launched on Monday 18 January 2010, broadcasting weekly from January until the end of the season.

End of the programme

In 2015, the BBC lost the rights to the Football League to Channel 5 beginning in August of that year, with Channel 5 offering the same money that the BBC paid for the previous three years but promising to show highlights at 9 pm, rather than after ''Match of the Day'', which had been the traditional home while on the BBC. The last ''Football League Show'' aired on 25 May 2015, with highlights of the Championship play-off final from

between

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

. The final few editions of the Football League Show featured memories and highlights from the past six seasons and featured credits naming all who worked on the show. Channel 5 showed highlights from the Football League's competitions on its own programme, ''

Football League Tonight ''Football League Tonight'' was a football highlights programme on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. The show covered the English Football League and its cup competitions; the EFL Cup and the EFL Trophy. It was replaced for the 2018–19 season ...

'' until August 2018 when they showed the highlights on

Quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ever ...

titled ''

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 ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Football League Show, The 2009 British television series debuts 2015 British television series endings 2000s British sports television series 2010s British sports television series English Football League on television BBC Television shows BBC Sport