BBC Sports Personality Of The Year Award Show To Be Revamped

The BBC has "radically overhauled the voting system" for the Sports Personality of the Year award following last year's controversy about the all-male shortlist, according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN. The victor will "still be decided by the voting public," but it has abandoned the practice of asking a wide range of newspapers and magazines to vote for their shortlist, a process that last year "led to an all-male shortlist amid heated debate over the reasons why." Instead, the initial shortlist will be decided by a panel of 12 experts including BBC execs, former nominees, newspaper sports editors and sports administrators. The BBC said it has expanded the shortlist by two to 12 due to "the unprecedented success of U.K. athletes in 2012." The show, which will be presented from London's ExCeL Centre, will feature a revamped format so that "it is a more traditional review of the year's sporting action rather than focusing exclusively on the nominees" (GUARDIAN, 10/18).