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 during the last ten minutes to cover local results. BBC Scotland runs a different programme altogether – Sportscene Results. Final Score is also broadcast on Boxing Day, New Year's Day and sometimes on either Good Friday or Easter Monday. A special Sunday edition is broadcast on the final day of the Premier League season.

Final Score is also broadcast on Saturday afternoons on the BBC Red Button and online for two hours before the BBC One broadcast begins. An additional half-hour was also broadcast live on BBC World News, the BBC's internationally broadcast news channel,^[1] but this was discontinued from the 2015–16 season.

It is a rival show to Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday, which started its Saturday afternoon football scores service in 1998.

Format

The programme, predominately presented by Jason Mohammad, provides viewers with the results from the main football league matches played on that day. The presenters is joined by two studio pundits discussing the day's play whilst watching the FA Premier League games in the studio and this is supplemented by reporters at all of the Premier League matches. There are also reporters at the Football League Championship matches and at the top games in League 1 and League 2, as well as at at least one Scottish Professional Football League game. The programme includes interviews with managers, players and studio pundits.

At 5pm, when all of the results are in, the day's scores are read by Mike West. Tim Gudgin used to read the scores until his retirement in 2011.^[2] There is also a review of the league tables for most divisions. After the main BBC television broadcast has finished (but continuing on the Red Button), Final Score features post-game interviews with managers, conducted by the commentators for Match of the Day.

The round-up covers games from the Premier League to the Conference National, in Scotland the four divisions of the Scottish Professional Football League as well as the Welsh Premier League and the Irish League.

History

Early days

Final Score had been part of the BBC's long-running show Grandstand as far back as 1958. The football results appeared on a device dubbed 'the Teleprinter', with each character of the results displayed one-by-one. In the early days, the presenter stood next to the Teleprinter with a camera pointed at the actual printer.

The results would come from the Press Association (PA), who appointed a correspondent to attend each match and report back the half-time and full-time scores to its offices in London. The PA would then use the technology of the day to provide a feed to BBC Television Centre. The Press Association provided the vidiprinter results service until Opta Sports took over the contract for the 2013–14 season onwards.^[3]

The host of the main Grandstand programme used to present the scores and often try to reflect how each result affected the league, which meant meticulous preparation was necessary.

After the majority of the results came in, the scores would then be collated and announced as the 'Classified Football Results' in alphabetical order starting with the highest leagues first. Remarkably, only three people have regularly read the football results on the programme: the Australian Len Martin (from the first programme until his death in 1995) and Tim Gudgin. Gudgin read the results for the last time on 19 November 2011, then retired at the age of 81. He cited the BBC's decision to move the programme from London to Manchester as one of the reasons for his departure and the difficulty of travelling from his home in Hampshire, particularly in winter. The classifled results were then followed by the pools news and score draws and then the league tables, although the pools news element has been dropped in recent years due its decline.

Whilst football was always the mainstay of Final Score, news and results from other sports, such as rugby union, and in the early days, racing were also included. A brief version, usually lasting for 5 to 10 minutes, was aired during the summer when football was out of season.

Changes

Technology has gradually improved and by the 1980s a live shot of the actual Teleprinter had been replaced by a computer screen version, at which point the Teleprinter became referred to as 'the Vidiprinter'. However, the modern-day vidiprinter used by the programme still emulates the original typing system. There are now Goalflashes throughout the afternoon for every match played in the English and Scottish leagues, the Conference, Welsh Premier League and Northern Ireland.

Modernisations

During its last few years there was no longer a main presenter for Grandstand, so from the start of the 2001–02 season Final Score was broadcast as an individual programme with Ray Stubbs as the regular presenter.^[4] At this point, Final Score became a football-only programme. The half time round-up remained part of Grandstand until the start of the 2004–05 season when the extended version of the programme was launched. Initially called Score Interactive, the programme is broadcast from 14:30 on the BBC's interactive service, the BBC Red Button. The show starts its broadcasts to viewers with pundits analysing the games ahead (or in progress), and all goal flashes and incidents are broadcast on screen when the vidiprinter appears at 1500.

In November 2007 a midweek version of the show was introduced. Rather than being a programme in its own right, it is a simulcast of BBC Radio 5 Live with graphics and vidiprinter. Audio options were occasionally made available for BBC Local Radio commentaries of games involving Championship sides, but this was removed when the BBC decided to make the Red Button service a 'single feed' to all broadcast platforms in October 2012.^[5] The midweek version was shown when there were primarily Premier League or important UEFA Champions League matches taking place.^[6][7] It is a Red Button and Online exclusive, so therefore does not appear on BBC1 or BBC2.

When the BBC regained the rights for the FA Cup in 2014–15, the programme would be renamed FA Cup Final Score when the competition is the main focus, including Sunday broadcasts which show the key incidents from the day's games. Although centring on the FA Cup, there are also updates from matches in other domestic competitions that are taking place.

Studio

In the autumn of 2011 the programme moved to new BBC studios in Salford from studio TC5 at TV Centre in London, which had been its home for many years. The last programme from TC5 was broadcast on 19 November 2011.

Presenter and pundits

The current presenter of Final Score is Jason Mohammad, who replaced Gabby Logan at the start of the 2013–14 season.^[8] Final Score was previously presented by Ray Stubbs until he left the BBC at the end of the 2008–09 season.

Pundits who appear on the programme have included Garth Crooks, Steve Claridge, Robbie Savage, Martin Keown, Matt Holland, John Hartson, Gary Pallister, Les Ferdinand, Kevin Kilbane and Mark Bright.

Theme Tune

The current theme tune is "Pumpin Blood" by NONONO and has been since the start of the 2013–14 football season. Previous themes have included "The King And All Of His Men" by Wolf Gang used between the 2011–12 and 2012–13 football seasons, "Jump In The Pool" by Friendly Fires used between the 2009–10 and 2010–11 football seasons and "Theme From Sparta FC" by The Fall between the 2005–06 and 2008–09 football seasons.

References

External links

• Final Score at BBC Programmes