''The Goal Rush'' was a live

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

television programme that aired from 2001 to 2003, produced by

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

. The programme was broadcast on Saturdays as a rival show to

Final Score ''Final Score'' is a BBC Television football news and results programme produced by BBC Sport. The programme is broadcast on late Saturday afternoons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually on BBC One. BBC Northern Ireland opts away dur ...

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 ...

, and provided live

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

scores from the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

and

The 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 Engla ...

. Coverage began on

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

and then continued on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

. The programme was presented by Angus Scott. ITV ran the programme during the two of the three seasons that it held the rights to show Premier League highlights. After the rights were lost, ''The Goal Rush'' was axed.

Format

The Goal Rush was announced in 2000 by

Brian Barwick Brian Robert Barwick (born 21 June 1954) has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in major sports broadcasting and administration. He was awarded an OBE in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to sport and broadcasting. Br ...

, ITV Controller of Sport. The programme was a replacement for ''Football First'' which had aired exclusively on

since its launch in late 1998. It was described as "having the style and feel of the

Bloomberg Television Bloomberg Television (on-air as Bloomberg) is an American-based pay television network focusing on business and capital market programming, owned by Bloomberg L.P. It is distributed globally, reaching over 310 million homes worldwide. It is head ...

channel". It first aired on 18 August 2001 after ITV won the rights to Premier League highlights. The format was similar to that which is used by the

BBC's #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

'' Score'' and Sky's ''

Soccer Saturday ''Gillette Labs Soccer Saturday'' is a weekly television programme broadcast on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland during the football season. The programme updates viewers on the progress of association football games in the United ...

''; with live match reports, on screen scores and a ticker. Each episode started at 14:30 on Saturdays on ITV's digital channel, ITV2. At varying times after 16:00 the coverage would switch to ITV1. The service was hosted by presenter Angus Scott, and former footballer and football manager

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nick ...

provided expert analysis. Other analysts included

Clive Allen Clive Darren Allen (born 20 May 1961) is an English former professional Association football, footballer who played as a forward (association football), forward for seven different London clubs. Allen was a prolific striker throughout his career ...

, Paul Elliott,

Jim Beglin James Martin Beglin (born 29 July 1963) is an Irish former professional footballer and current co-commentator for RTÉ, CBS Sports, BT Sport, and Premier League Productions. Playing career Shamrock Rovers Beglin played schoolboy football ...

and

John Barnes John Charles Bryan Barnes MBE (born 7 November 1963) is a former professional football player and manager. He currently works as an author, commentator and pundit for ESPN and SuperSport. Initially a quick, skilful left winger, he moved to cent ...

Reception

The look of the service resembled the BBC's service quite closely and commentators criticised ITV for this. The programme never achieved a high number of viewers and on 6 April 2002 the show received ITV's lowest ever audience share with 3%, during the broadcast of the

2002 Grand National The 2002 Grand National (officially known as the Martell Grand National for sponsorship reasons) was the 155th official renewal of the Grand National steeplechase that took place at Aintree Racecourse near Liverpool, England, on 6 April 2002. ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goal Rush, The 2001 British television series debuts 2003 British television series endings 2000s British sports television series ITV Sport ITV (TV network) original programming Premier League on television English Football League on television Television series by ITV Studios Television shows produced by Granada Television English-language television shows