Bizarre 20-minute ‘Match of the Day’ watched by 500,000 more viewers than last week on BBC

An unprecedented match of the day without moderators, pundits or commentators last night was watched by 500,000 more people than the previous week.

An average of 2.6 million viewers tuned in to the somewhat bizarre 20-minute highlights programme, which joins the BBC in one of the biggest crises of the last generation. game of the day, which is broadcast most of the year, averages about 2 million viewers. Last night’s show drew the biggest audience in four months.

A peak audience of almost 3 million and accounted for almost a quarter (23.5%) of people watching television when they tuned in to last night’s show game of the day, which was broadcast without presenters, pundits or commentators after host Gary Lineker was withdrawn from the BBC for breaching impartiality rules.

His fellow pundits refused to join him in solidarity after controversy erupted over a tweet comparing the government’s language on asylum policy to Germany in the 1930s, and several other BBC sports pundits and commentators declined to join the program yesterday.

Much of today’s programming is also expected to be disrupted and match of the day 2 will be broadcast without moderators.

BBC Director General Tim Davie last night apologized for disturbing viewers but said he would not be stepping down. He is fighting desperately to solve the crisis.

The BBC announced the decision to ax Lineker from the popular Friday afternoon highlights program after “extensive discussions” in which the sports presenter revealed that his tweet comparing the language around the British government’s asylum policy to Nazi Germany was unacceptable.

In response, a number of experts and commentators – starting with match of the day Pundits Ian Wright and Alan Shearer – resigned in solidarity with Lineker, and other presenters said they would not appear. In the widely shared tweet, Lineker condemned what he described as a “beyond appalling” British government policy to prevent small boats carrying asylum seekers from reaching British shores.

In a later tweet, he added: “We take in far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is simply an immeasurably cruel policy aimed at the most vulnerable, in language not unlike that of Germany in the 1930s .”

Lineker’s suspension drew criticism of the BBC from across the political spectrum. On Friday, the opposition Labor Party said the BBC’s decision was “cowardly” and an “attack on freedom of expression under political pressure”.

Broadcaster Piers Morgan said in a tweet that Lineker’s suspension was “pathetically spineless”.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak joined the debate on Saturday and said he hoped the dispute could “be settled in the near future”.

“Gary Lineker was a great footballer and a talented presenter,” Sunak said. “I hope the current situation between Gary Lineker and the BBC can be resolved in time, but it is rightly a matter for them, not the government.”

The scandal comes just after a difficult few weeks for BBC chairman Richard Sharp, who has been under investigation for his role in facilitating a loan for former prime minister Boris Johnson. Some analysts suggested Sharp’s resignation would be a fair compromise to welcome back Lineker, the BBC’s highest-paid presenter, on £1.35 million ($1.62 million) a year.