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- The BBC’s 70th Sports Personality of the Year awards takes place on Tuesday
- BBC director of sport Barbara Slater recalls some of the show’s best moments
- Lionesses goalkeeper is currently favourite out of the six-person shortlist
Whoever is handed the Sports Personality of the Year trophy on Tuesday night, the BBC will hope it goes more smoothly than it did 10 years ago.
‘We were due to come to the end of the programme and announce the results – and Andy Murray was in the shower!’ recalls Barbara Slater, the retiring BBC director of sport. ‘So the programme had to improvise and Judy Murray was suddenly an impromptu interview.’
After quickly towelling down, Murray was eventually presented with the 2013 award by Martina Navratilova around the pool at his hotel in Miami. It was not the Scot’s only awkward moment at his winter training base. One year earlier, when Lennox Lewis was supposed to hand him his third-place trophy, he missed his cue and Murray was forced to pick it up himself.
Aside from being involved in some of SPOTY’s all-time clangers, though, Murray is also the record three-time winner of the BBC gong, which will be awarded for the 70th time in Salford tomorrow. Having worked for the Beeb for 40 years, Slater has played a part in almost half of those shows and lists three stand-out moments.
‘I have to mention Muhammad Ali,’ she says about the late boxing legend being named Sports Personality of the Century in 1999. ‘You get emotional just thinking about it. His faltering steps, and yet he came and he was in the studio. That was fantastic.
![Former heavyweight world champion Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis were once famously winners at the SPOTY awards](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/17/79058585-12874191-Former_heavyweight_world_champion_Muhammad_Ali_and_Lennox_Lewis_-m-4_1702832682540.jpg)
Former heavyweight world champion Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis were once famously winners at the SPOTY awards
![Barbara Slater, the retiring BBC director of sport looked back on the SPOTY's greatest moments and gaffes ahead of Tuesday's awards](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/16/79058563-12874191-image-a-2_1702832368942.jpg)
Barbara Slater, the retiring BBC director of sport looked back on the SPOTY’s greatest moments and gaffes ahead of Tuesday’s awards
![Tuesday's SPOTY awards will celebrate its 70th anniversary in Salford on Tuesday evening](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/16/79058569-12874191-image-a-3_1702832375547.jpg)
Tuesday’s SPOTY awards will celebrate its 70th anniversary in Salford on Tuesday evening
‘I also have to mention 2012 because I think the whole nation was lifted by the Olympic Games and then Sports Personality at the end of the year had Bradley Wiggins calling Sue Barker “Susan”.
‘And then I have to mention last year because to see the Lionesses recognised with Team of the Year, Coach of the Year and the individual winner, Beth Mead, just showed how much the nation celebrated and was proud of their achievement.’
The bookies’ favourite to win SPOTY this year is another Lioness, goalkeeper Mary Earps. She is up against Ashes hero Stuart Broad, world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, ageless jockey Frankie Dettori, wheelchair tennis No1 Alfie Hewett and Europe’s Ryder Cup talisman Rory McIlroy.
One person who did not make the shortlist, however, is world 1,500 metres gold medallist Josh Kerr. That decision prompted World Athletics president Seb Coe, who won SPOTY in 1979 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012, to ask: ‘Are you having a laugh SPOTY?’
On Kerr’s omission, Slater, who chaired the 12-person shortlisting panel for the final time, says: ‘This happens every single year. We always have people we would love to put on the list, but we can’t.
‘We had so many world champions. We had Jake Jarman in gymnastics, Matt Richards in swimming. Where do you draw the line? And wherever you draw the line, there’s going to be some that don’t make it.
‘The criteria is sporting achievement, but it is impact as well. We want to recognise the breadth and depth of sports.
‘The panel will have robust debate and a lot of consideration is given on arguing the case for one person above another. But the truth is, we are going to have worthy people with fantastic achievements, who will just fall short.’
![Andrew Murray has won the Beebs top gong for a record-three times but has also been apart of the awards best blooper moments along the way](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/17/79058565-12874191-image-a-5_1702832761921.jpg)
Andrew Murray has won the Beebs top gong for a record-three times but has also been apart of the awards best blooper moments along the way
![England's Lionesses goalkeeper Mary Earps is the bookies' favourite to win the award this year](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/17/79058571-12874191-image-a-6_1702832767453.jpg)
England’s Lionesses goalkeeper Mary Earps is the bookies’ favourite to win the award this year
The BBC have stuck rigidly to a six-person shortlist since 2018, having had 10 or 12 nominees in previous years, and as many as 16 in 2016.
‘Even when we extended the list, it didn’t take the problem away,’ admits Slater. ‘Let’s say you have a list of 10. You still get a cut-off point and the person you rank 11 for 12 are often very deserving as well.
Kerr has said he will still attend the show in Salford despite his snub and throw his support behind his British team-mate Johnson-Thompson.
‘We will want to make a fuss of him,’ insists Slater. ‘His achievements are fantastic. We’re not just concentrating on the nominees, we’re actually celebrating the sporting year much more widely.’
Slater also insists the debate around the shortlist proves that SPOTY remains relevant in the eyes of the public, 70 years on from its launch.
![Beth Mead became the first women to win the SPOTY award last year after her Lionesses heroics](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/17/79042033-12874191-image-a-7_1702832813724.jpg)
Beth Mead became the first women to win the SPOTY award last year after her Lionesses heroics
![Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads Atheltics' best chance to win the coveted prize](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/17/79058755-12874191-image-a-10_1702832866971.jpg)
Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson leads Atheltics’ best chance to win the coveted prize
‘One of the great things about the programme is that everybody will have a favourite athlete or a favourite sport and feel very strongly if they’re on the list or not on the list,’ she says. ‘And we kind of love that debate.
‘I think the programme really does have a special place in the heart of the British public. I think it’s every bit as relevant. You’ve only got to look at the column inches both coming in and also following on.’
SPOTY is being held at dock10 Studios in Salford on Tuesday night, with a small public audience for the first time in four years. As has been the case since the show’s move away from BBC Television Centre in 2006, the review of the sporting year will again include live music and other gimmicks, something that has been a turn-off for traditional viewers.
But Slater insists: ‘This programme is going to occupy two hours of peak time viewing, so I think it’s right that we add some sparkle.
‘We will have live music on Tuesday night, but it’s there to accompany the sport. It’s a celebration and I think the programme should have a celebratory feel. We try to make the show lively and entertaining.
![Mens 1500m world champion Josh Kerr was a surprise shortlist omission but will still attend the awards ceremony on Tuesday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/17/79058753-12874191-image-a-12_1702832882075.jpg)
Mens 1500m world champion Josh Kerr was a surprise shortlist omission but will still attend the awards ceremony on Tuesday
‘Maybe there were some times back in Television Centre, with a lot of suited gentleman and polite applause. But to have the atmosphere that we now have I think is wonderful and a great addition.’
The lack of actual sporting action broadcast on the night is, of course, also partly to do with BBC rights. In Slater’s 14 years as director of sport, the corporation has lost the rights to Formula One, The Open Championship and the Grand National, among others, while been forced to share the Six Nations with ITV and the Olympics with Discovery.
![Slater defended the final rigid six-person shortlist and admitted there will always be people unhappy to have been left off it](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12/17/17/79058765-12874191-image-a-13_1702832921932.jpg)
Slater defended the final rigid six-person shortlist and admitted there will always be people unhappy to have been left off it
But Slater adds: ‘Over the past decade we’ve seen sports rights double in value and the BBC’s income in real terms is down 30 per cent. It’s going to be inevitable there will be some things that financially get out of our reach
‘But we have brought back the FA Cup and live TV cricket. We have a new long-term deal for Match of the Day through to 2029, we have Champions League highlights coming and the Olympics through to 2032.
‘Our TV sports coverage alone only represents three per cent of all of the coverage in the UK, roughly per year, but we deliver broadly 40 per cent of the viewership. So to keep free-to-air sport available to the widest possible audience is important for sport.
‘We will not on all occasions be the highest bidder. But some of the things that we will take to rights holders is our reach. If you want to amplify an event, the BBC is a really, really good place to come.’