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Final Score
Final Score is a BBC Television football news and results programme produced by BBC Sport. The programme is broadcast on late Saturday afternoons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually on BBC One. BBC Northern Ireland opts away during the last ten minutes to cover local results in Final Score from Northern Ireland, normally just after the Premier League scores are read out. BBC Scotland runs a different programme altogether – Open All Mics. Final Score is also broadcast on Boxing Day and New Year's Day and sometimes on either Good Friday or Easter Monday. A special Sunday edition is broadcast on the final day of the Premier League season.
Final Score is also broadcast on Saturday afternoons on the BBC Red Button and online for two hours before the BBC One broadcast begins. An additional half-hour was also broadcast live on BBC World News, the BBC's internationally broadcast news channel, but this was discontinued from the 2015–16 season.
The programme provides viewers with the results from the main football matches played on that day. The presenters are joined by two studio pundits discussing the day's play whilst watching the Premier League games in the studio and this is supplemented by reporters at all of the Premier League matches. There are also reporters at every EFL Championship match and at the top games in EFL League One and EFL League Two, and at least one Scottish Professional Football League game. Mark Clemmit or Kelly Somers provides regular roundups of the top stories from the rest of the EFL matches. The programme also includes interviews with managers and players.
Just after 17:00, when all of the results are in, they are read by Mike West. The round-up covers games from the Premier League, EFL Championship, EFL League One, EFL League Two and the Enterprise National League in England, in Scotland the four divisions of the William Hill Scottish Professional Football League as well as the Welsh Premier League in Wales and the Irish League in Northern Ireland. Next is a review of the league tables in England and Scotland and this is followed by post-game interviews with managers, conducted by the commentators for Match of the Day. After the main BBC television broadcast has finished the programme continues until 17:30 on the Red Button.
Final Score had been part of the BBC's Grandstand since the programme's launch in 1958. The football results appeared on a device dubbed "the Teleprinter" and the presenter stood next to the Teleprinter with a camera pointed at the actual printer. By the 1980s, a live shot of the printer had been replaced by an on-screen computerised version and was renamed the vidiprinter.
The results would come from the Press Association (PA), who appointed a correspondent to attend each match and report back the half-time and full-time scores to its offices in London. The PA would then use the technology of the day to provide a feed to BBC Television Centre (TVC). The Press Association provided the vidiprinter results service until Opta Sports took over the contract for the 2013–14 season onwards. The host of the main Grandstand programme used to provide commentary on the scores as they came in to try to reflect how each result affected the league, which meant meticulous preparation was necessary.
After the majority of the results came in, the scores would then be collated and announced as the 'Classified Football Results' in alphabetical order starting with the highest leagues first. Remarkably, until 2025 only three people had regularly read the football results on the programme: Len Martin (from 1958 until 1995), Tim Gudgin (from 1995 until 2011) and Mike West from 2011 until 2025. Gudgin read the results for the last time on 19 November 2011, then retired at the age of 81. He cited the BBC's decision to move the programme from London to Salford Quays as one of the reasons for his departure and the difficulty of travelling from his home in Hampshire, particularly in winter.. Since the start of the 2025/26 season the football results have been read by the main presenter instead of a separate off-camera announcer. The classified results were followed by the pools news and score draws and then by the league tables, although the pools news element was dropped due to its decline.
Whilst football was always the mainstay of Final Score, news and results from other sports, such as rugby union, and until 1987 racing results, were also included.
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Final Score
Final Score is a BBC Television football news and results programme produced by BBC Sport. The programme is broadcast on late Saturday afternoons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, usually on BBC One. BBC Northern Ireland opts away during the last ten minutes to cover local results in Final Score from Northern Ireland, normally just after the Premier League scores are read out. BBC Scotland runs a different programme altogether – Open All Mics. Final Score is also broadcast on Boxing Day and New Year's Day and sometimes on either Good Friday or Easter Monday. A special Sunday edition is broadcast on the final day of the Premier League season.
Final Score is also broadcast on Saturday afternoons on the BBC Red Button and online for two hours before the BBC One broadcast begins. An additional half-hour was also broadcast live on BBC World News, the BBC's internationally broadcast news channel, but this was discontinued from the 2015–16 season.
The programme provides viewers with the results from the main football matches played on that day. The presenters are joined by two studio pundits discussing the day's play whilst watching the Premier League games in the studio and this is supplemented by reporters at all of the Premier League matches. There are also reporters at every EFL Championship match and at the top games in EFL League One and EFL League Two, and at least one Scottish Professional Football League game. Mark Clemmit or Kelly Somers provides regular roundups of the top stories from the rest of the EFL matches. The programme also includes interviews with managers and players.
Just after 17:00, when all of the results are in, they are read by Mike West. The round-up covers games from the Premier League, EFL Championship, EFL League One, EFL League Two and the Enterprise National League in England, in Scotland the four divisions of the William Hill Scottish Professional Football League as well as the Welsh Premier League in Wales and the Irish League in Northern Ireland. Next is a review of the league tables in England and Scotland and this is followed by post-game interviews with managers, conducted by the commentators for Match of the Day. After the main BBC television broadcast has finished the programme continues until 17:30 on the Red Button.
Final Score had been part of the BBC's Grandstand since the programme's launch in 1958. The football results appeared on a device dubbed "the Teleprinter" and the presenter stood next to the Teleprinter with a camera pointed at the actual printer. By the 1980s, a live shot of the printer had been replaced by an on-screen computerised version and was renamed the vidiprinter.
The results would come from the Press Association (PA), who appointed a correspondent to attend each match and report back the half-time and full-time scores to its offices in London. The PA would then use the technology of the day to provide a feed to BBC Television Centre (TVC). The Press Association provided the vidiprinter results service until Opta Sports took over the contract for the 2013–14 season onwards. The host of the main Grandstand programme used to provide commentary on the scores as they came in to try to reflect how each result affected the league, which meant meticulous preparation was necessary.
After the majority of the results came in, the scores would then be collated and announced as the 'Classified Football Results' in alphabetical order starting with the highest leagues first. Remarkably, until 2025 only three people had regularly read the football results on the programme: Len Martin (from 1958 until 1995), Tim Gudgin (from 1995 until 2011) and Mike West from 2011 until 2025. Gudgin read the results for the last time on 19 November 2011, then retired at the age of 81. He cited the BBC's decision to move the programme from London to Salford Quays as one of the reasons for his departure and the difficulty of travelling from his home in Hampshire, particularly in winter.. Since the start of the 2025/26 season the football results have been read by the main presenter instead of a separate off-camera announcer. The classified results were followed by the pools news and score draws and then by the league tables, although the pools news element was dropped due to its decline.
Whilst football was always the mainstay of Final Score, news and results from other sports, such as rugby union, and until 1987 racing results, were also included.