To make it into week two of Wimbledon requires mental toughness and a swift reactions, as the BBC executives behind the much-derided new highlights show Wimbledon 2Day have discovered.
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“We have moved to a new location, on top of the Centre Court building, which gives an excellent backdrop of the heart of Wimbledon, as the championship builds to its climax”.
Tennis fan’s took to Twitter in their droves decrying the show, branding an almighty “balls-up” by the broadcaster.
But from tonight, the hour-long BBC2 show will move to a studio above Centre Court.
A BBC source told The Mirror the show had always intended to “evolve”, moving ‘closer to the centre of the event for the final stages.’.
Fans appeared to hate the new Wimbledon 2Day format, and even regular guest pundit John McEnroe called it “bizarre” while actually on air.
In a scathing review in The Daily Mail, the show was referred to as “super right-on” and “tooth-achingly trendy”. Instead of crisp analysis and lots of tennis, there are gimmicky items…
It has also included home video clips of babies playing tennis, while highlights of the day’s action has been largely reduced. “What we don’t want is Clare reading out inane tweets or talking over match play while rock’n’roll musk is played over her words”.
Balding has refused to comment, and Ofcom said it had only received one complaint about Wimbledon2Day from a viewer who was not happy with the format.
At least the BBC has been listening, and from the sounds of things the issues will be fixed as of Monday.
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On Friday a Radio Times poll found that 95 per cent of viewers wanted a return to the old highlights show, Today at Wimbledon, presented previous year by John Inverdale from behind a desk.
