Fans Slam BBC's New 'Dumbed Down' Wimbledon Coverage

[Teddy Bear]

Haven't watched this show, nor am I likely to.

Tennis fans slam BBC's new 'dumbed down' Wimbledon coverage after Claire Balding took over from John Inverdale and liken it to spoof mockumentary series W1A

• Angry viewers complained Wimbledon 2Day has dumbed down coverage
• Calling for return of John Inverdale to replace presenter Clare Balding
• Some have even compared the new show to BBC spoof series W1A
• But Balding's wife Alice Arnold has defended the TV presenter on Twitter

By Hannah Parry For Mailonline

The BBC's new Wimbledon highlight show has been mocked by fans for dumbing down its tennis coverage.

Angry viewers took to Twitter to ridicule the new format which has replaced the corporation's traditional highlights show Today at Wimbledon.

The new Wimbledon 2Day show features a mix of match snippets, tweets and chats all hosted by Clare Balding. It is filmed in front of a live audience of fans at one of Wimbledon's hospitality suites - The Gatsby Club.

But the BBC's more 'interactive' approach to tennis coverage was criticised for appearing to dumb down for it's viewers after the first show aired on Monday.

Many complained that it had failed to make the best use of its former Wimbledon champion pundits John McEnroe and Lindsay Davenport, both former Wimbledon champions.

Others slammed Balding's presenting skills and called for the return of Today at Wimbledon and its original presenter John Inverdale.

Ellen Marley asked: 'WTF does Claire Balding know about tennis? Bring back John Inverdale #bbctennis #Wimbledon2day'

Jenna ‏@thetrekfiles tweeted: 'Bring back Today at Wimbledon with John Inverdale immediately!'

Some even compared the new format to BBC spoof mockumentary series W1A.

Jon Pollard said: 'BBC Winbledon2day? Has someone actually put W1A's Siobhan Sharpe in charge of BBC2? This is awful. Bring back John Inverdale.'

Richard Pennystan sarcastically wrote: 'Brilliant piece of irony by @bbctwo inventing spoof #Wimbledon2day highlights show to promote #W1A - hope we'll be back to old format today'

Even BBC2 seemed to get in on the joke, tweeting: 'There was talk of calling it #WINbledon 2day, but that was vetoed. #W1A'

But last night the TV presenter's wife Alice Arnold leapt to Balding defense.

Former Radio 4 presenter Arnold, who has joined her wife at Wimbledon as the tournament's new official announcer, hit back at commenters criticising Balding.

She denied the TV presenter was reading from an autocue and when one tweeter claimed Balding 'Doesn't sound like she knows what she's talking about' she replied: 'Your first tweet said she sounded like she did … make up your mind!'

Today she appeared to forget the 'ghastly news' and tweeted: 'Amidst all this ghastly news here's @clarebalding having a cuddle with a baby goat.'

The BBC's decision to appoint Balding came after Inverdale was heavily criticised for making a sexist comment about former champion Marion Bartoli.

But the corporation may be forced to take another look at its new format and presenter in the face of such a Twitter backlash.

Jonathan Watson ‏wrote: 'Nice job, BBC! Why bother with tennis highlights when you can just have an hour of inane babbling instead? #wimbledon2day

Nick Morton added: 'Well @bbctennis it's back to drawing board. Nothing but criticism of clunky new #wimbledon2day format on here. What a silly gimmicky mess!'

Alistair McKnight ‏said: 'What is this Gatsby bar, live audience, standing up nonsense? Where's Today at Wimbledon?'

Susan Tomes said: 'This new format is a mess. Ill-conceived, stilted, embarrassing. Horrible camera work. BBC Sport, please reconsider!'

[Teddy Bear]

Jan Moir at the Mail also tears into this show. It also displays just what the BBC believe will attract the audience they're aiming at.
Judge for yourself!

It's like Top Gear meets Play School: JAN MOIR savages Wimbledon's new highlights show that's driving fans mad

By Jan Moir for the Daily Mail

Clare Balding stands on the fake grass by the fake bar making fake conversation with the fake audience who now and again emit peals of fake laughter, like plastic hyenas. HA HA HA! Isn’t this just faking hilarious?

Actually, no. Welcome to Wimbledon 2Day, the BBC’s disastrous new daily tennis round-up show, presented by the ubiquitous Miss Balding.

Hosted in some hideous corporate entertaining space at Wimbledon called The Gatsby Club, it features whizzy camera angles, wafty muslin curtains and a bunch of randoms plucked from the pathway by Court 2, given a glass of barley water, shoved behind the bar and told to look like they are enjoying themselves. Hello Mum!

The hour-long programme replaces the much-loved Today At Wimbledon, presented by John Inverdale for the past dozen years. Two years ago, poor John made an unfortunate remark about tennis player Marion Bartoli being ‘not much of a looker’. He didn’t mean to be unchivalrous, more that she would never make as much in sponsorship deals as glamazons such as Maria Sharapova. However, for this accurate but clumsily expressed observation, he was packed into the Starship Sexist and blasted back to Planet Dinosaur, never to be forgiven by the BBC tennis-heads.

In his place comes the super right-on, tooth-achingly trendy Wimbledon 2Day, so much like a parody of something that might be suggested on W1A, the satirical show about the BBC, that it is painful to watch. Even the hashtag-friendly name speaks volumes, suggesting that some focus group informed the Beeb that they were not attracting enough teenagers to tennis. And to sharpen up their image, pronto.

So like some nightmarish cross between Top Gear and Play School, guests must chat to Clare while standing around one of those high top tables that are so popular in wine bars. A volley of cliches about the ‘great tradition and lengthy history’ of Wimbledon are smashed around with abandon, while precious little court action from the day’s matches is shown. Instead of crisp analysis and lots of tennis, there are gimmicky items such as Shot Of The Day and a sequence in which tennis ball stickers are placed over photographs of the seeded players who have been eliminated that day.

‘This is so bizarre and crazy,’ said John McEnroe, a regular guest - but at least he is getting paid to take part. We just had to watch glumly at home as Clare waffles on as if she was hosting a dinner party for idiots, then went on to play pretend tennis with Tim Henman, using plastic kiddy racquets. Last night’s show, inexplicably truncated to only 30 minutes, wasted more precious time on an inane conversation about beards. Had McEnroe ever had one, Clare wondered.

‘What the hell are you asking me about beards for?’ He replied. And so say all of us. Honestly. It’s as if Wimbledon, the greatest tennis tournament in the world, is no longer enough spectacle and entertainment on its own merits. Once again, just like the Olympics and the Jubilee Pageant coverage, the BBC has given in to its reckless corporate urge to jazz up and dumb down where nothing of the sort is needed.

Tennis fans who have been working all day, which means the vast majority of us, want to come home and watch a plain and simple, comprehensive round-up of the day’s play. We want as many on-court highlights as possible and straight-forward scrutiny and expert opinion. What we don’t want is Clare reading out inane tweets or talking over match play while rock’n’roll musak is played over her words. Nor giggles and forced bonhomie as a bunch of has-beens chunter on about their favourite players and the host pushes her agenda for more coverage of women in sport.

So much like a parody of something that might be suggested on W1A, the satirical show about the BBC, Wimbledon 2day is painful to watch

I support this admirable stance in many ways, but tennis is not an equal sport. Be honest – the polite pitter-patter of much she-tennis is never as exciting as when the men play. On Wimbledon 2Day there is rather too much about women players no one has ever heard of. A highlights show should show the highlights – not broadcast a politically correct, gender-balanced, feminist orientated view of the sport.


Tim Henman and Clare Balding warm up before Wimbledon Day 3

And I do wish the BBC would stop trying to turn every programme she appears on into a star vehicle for Clare Balding. Yes, she is a brilliant sports commentator with a knack of engaging with both tennis superstars and ordinary fans alike. Yet she is not, and never will be, an entertainer. It’s almost cruel of them to keep pushing her forward in this capacity. Clare’s not balding, but she is wearing thin.

In the meantime, this programme is a travesty and a tragedy, and it is being broadcast every night from now until the 2015 Wimbledon champions are crowned. I do wish they would bring back boring old John Inverdale on his balcony before it is too late. Tennis deserves better – and so do we.