The BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year programme will have an all-female presenting line-up for the first time ever after Gary Lineker‘s exit from the event.
Lineker, 63, will not be replaced as co-host of the sports awards on December 17, the corporation reportedly confirmed.
It will instead be shown by Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott.
The news comes less than two weeks after the BBC said Lineker was leaving Match of the Day at the end of the season, following 25 years as the show’s star.
Before that came the announcement that last year’s 70th anniversary Spoty awards had been the presenter’s last ever edition after almost a quarter of a century.
For years, Lineker co-hosted the show with Balding and Logan. Scott became the fourth presenter in 2020.
Director of BBC Sport, Alex Kay-Jelski, described 2024 as a ‘thrilling and emotional year of amazing sport’.
The annual sports awards will be held on December 17 in MediaCityUK, Salford.
Gabby Logan, Alex Scott, Gary Lineker, Clare Balding presenting BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023
The BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year programme will have an all-female presenting line-up for the first time ever after Lineker’s exit from the event
For years, Lineker had co-hosted the show alongside Balding and Logan. Scott became the fourth presenter in 2020
Lineker is set to receive a bumper pay day after the BBC revealed a new one-year licensing deal to host two popular podcasts made by his production company, it was revealed last week.
His presence will still be felt at the corporation after a new deal was struck between the BBC and his co-founded company, Goalhanger Productions, which has rapidly established itself in just two years as the UK’s most successful podcast production company.
BBC Sounds is set to host two of the company’s podcasts.
The Rest Is Football, fronted by Lineker and fellow former players Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, will have one episode released each week from November 27.
It will arrive on the online radio and podcast platform two days after general release elsewhere.
Meanwhile, The Rest Is History, presented by Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, will also be available on BBC Sounds after a successful trial on the platform from September 2022 to January 2023.
It will air two episodes a week, eight weeks after general release, with the first for BBC Sounds coming on November 29.