The BBC Sports Personality of the Year show returns on Sunday 13 December, broadcast live from Salford, with audiences set to decide more winners than ever before as five of the nine awards on the night will be settled by public vote.
Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott will again host the programme, which will be shown on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app from 17:45 GMT. The ceremony will celebrate a year the BBC describes as including Team GB’s most successful Winter Olympics, England’s best finish at a men’s Fifa World Cup since 1966, and record-breaking displays at the European Athletics Championships. In addition to the main Sports Personality award, fans will choose the winners of World Sport Star of the Year, Team of the Year and two football awards, heading a format the BBC says gives audiences a bigger say than ever in who takes home the trophies.
Two new football awards
There will be two new award categories this year, Men’s Footballer of the Year and BBC World Service Women’s Footballer of the Year. The World Service women’s award has been presented since 2015 but will now be part of the Sports Personality show for the first time. Voting for that global award opens on Tuesday 10 November. Fans will also decide the winners of the two football awards, alongside World Sport Star, Team of the Year and the headline Sports Personality of the Year trophy. The remaining awards, the Helen Rollason Award, Young Sports Personality of the Year, Coach of the Year and Lifetime Achievement, will be decided through panels or by the BBC rather than a public vote on the night.
An independent panel made up of industry experts, sports broadcasters, sports journalists and former sportspeople will determine the shortlists for Sports Personality of the Year, Team of the Year and World Sport Star of the Year, with the winners then chosen by public votes. That same independent panel will determine the winners of Young Sports Personality of the Year and Coach of the Year. Separate panels of football experts will provide the shortlists for the men’s and women’s football awards. Full voting details, dates and terms and conditions are due to be announced in due course.
A night shaped by the year in sport
Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport, said what he loves about Sports Personality of the Year is that it brings together the moments that stopped people in their tracks, from goals and medals to upsets, records and stories that dominated conversation at work, in the pub and around the dinner table. He said the shortlists this year will be packed with athletes and teams who have achieved extraordinary things, and that audiences will have a bigger say than ever before in who takes home the trophies. The nine categories in full are BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the Helen Rollason Award, Young Sports Personality of the Year, Coach of the Year, Team of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, Men’s Footballer of the Year, Women’s Footballer of the Year and World Sport Star of the Year.
Why it matters
Sports Personality of the Year remains one of the BBC’s flagship live events and a marker of how the public judges sporting achievement across the year. Expanding public votes to five awards changes the balance between expert panels and popular choice, and puts longlists for football, team and world honours directly in the hands of audiences at home and overseas. For UK viewers, the inclusion of Team GB’s Winter Olympics success, England’s World Cup finish and European Athletics records means the shortlists will span winter and summer sport, men’s and women’s football and team and individual achievement. The move of the World Service women’s football award into the main show also gives that prize a larger platform than in previous years.
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What happens next
Voting for the BBC World Service Women’s Footballer of the Year opens on Tuesday 10 November, with further voting windows and shortlist announcements expected in the weeks before the ceremony. The BBC says full voting details, dates and terms will be published in due course, and the independent and football expert panels will now work on the shortlists for the public-voted categories. The show itself will be broadcast live from Salford on Sunday 13 December from 17:45 GMT, hosted by Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott. Fans can follow announcements on BBC Sport and prepare to vote in what the corporation is presenting as its most audience-led Sports Personality of the Year yet.
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