Wimbledon 2019

Changes to make for next year.

They’ve partially sorted Today at Wimbledon by airing it at 8:30, but it still doesn’t seem quite late enough to ensure it always airs in full. They go to the effort of booking McEnroe etc and then don’t always use them. Remember it isn’t just the highlights, it’s the punditry, the little features and packages.

Although I can see the point of trying to maintain some sort of normal BBC Two programming after 9/9:30, but at the same time with BBC Two’s budget being tight maybe they shouldn’t and should keep any new programming back for other times of the year.

Air Today at Wimbledon at 9:30pm every night, and fill the gap between 8/8:30 with easily droppable repeats like Dad’s Army etc would by my way forward.

They needn't bother scheduling anything in before TaW even with a 21:30 start. It's rare there isn't a match still going on at 21:00. Use some filler if play is done for the day.

While we're at it, start at 13:00 on BBC one so that the Centre and No. 1 Court matches get proper coverage.

We say these things every year but nothing changes.

I wonder how many packages made for TaW never get seen. Must be frustrating for those who have worked on them. Without TaW there's also nothing going out on the red button overnight either.

I’d probably schedule something, just so people don’t complain that there is ‘12 hours of tennis on BBC Two’ based on them just looking at the listings.

And yes, a lot of packages must be made up at short notice and then binned immediately.

Exactly, and although I'm sure ITV or C4 could do a great job with it having it ad free and in full is what licence fee payers deserve. Now they've had their Olympic coverage drastically reduced Wimbledon IMO is the flagship live event the BBC have and is BBC Sport at it's best.

Also thankfully they seem to have stepped back from the unnecessary breaks within their own coverage that had crept in over recent years, either for a general block of trailers or trailing a flagship show at a peak viewing moment which usually felt out of place.


Well before it moved to 8pm it did air at 9.30pm, generally with half hour shows at 8.30/9pm, often including some classic comedies which could be dropped.

I do think if Today at Wimbledon stays on BBC2 it's fine where it is as I think should live coverage overrun they'd still run the hour long slot of regular programme so curtail Today at Wimbledon anyway.

I do wonder though if stripping Today at Wimbledon on BBC1 at 9pm across the fortnight is worth it. They can easily afford to lose two weeks of 9pm programming (there are enough New Tricks/Death in Paradise/Mrs Brown Boys/Room 101 repeats over the year), and I think highlights stand out better with some slight seperation from the live coverage.

It’s very unlikely Today at Wimbledon would go to 9pm on BBC One, especially in Euro and World Cup years, it’s end up on BBC Two anyway.

Also given Countryfile rates better than Top Gear, it was never likely that TG would move to BBC One

Bring back Wimbledon2Day...

... or don't

True - hadn't thought of that, and now with a commitment to Womens football (the BBC has exclusive rights to Euro 2021) that's an annual thing rather than biannual.

Genome is unreliable in this case, as it takes schedules from the Radio Times, and what was scheduled isn't necessarily what aired!

Due to the late running of the Tennis on Sunday night, there were some last minute schedule changes which weren’t communicated as well as they should have been. We regret the inconvenience this caused our audiences.

— BBC Two (@BBCTwo) July 15, 2019

Similar on @BBCFour

As somebody else said, at least it's now pushed 'President Zuma with a statement' down to the second worse cut between two programmes!

In the back of my mind I've a feeling they've done this before where they've interrupted a programme in the middle to move Wimbledon, perhaps from BBC1 to BBC2, but with an announcement at least.