BBC's SPOTYs Draw More Than 14 Million Viewers, Most In Two Decades

Bradley Wiggins being crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year "was watched by a five-minute peak audience of 14.5 million viewers on Sunday, as the BBC1 show pulled in its biggest audience for at least two decades," according to John Plunkett of the London GUARDIAN. The BBC1 end-of-the-year sports review show, dominated by the Olympics and Paralympics, "had an average audience of 10.6 million viewers, a 39.6% share," between 7:30pm and 10:30pm local time on Sunday. Hosted by Sue Barker, Gary Lineker and Clare Balding, the award show had "a 15-minute peak of 14.3 million (56.5%) for its climax" between 10:15pm-10:30pm. Boosted by memories of an extraordinary year for British sport, the audience "was more than twice the 4.2 million (15.8%) who watched last year's show." It was the "biggest audience for the Sports Personality of the Year Show since at least '92" (GUARDIAN, 12/17).