BBC in huge schedule shake-up as string of popular show pulled from screens for London Marathon
THE BBC is facing an epic schedule shake-up on Sunday as it broadcasts a whopping seven-and-a-half hours of London Marathon coverage.
Across two channels, the broadcaster will bring over six hours worth of live coverage from the race during the day with a further hour of highlights later in the evening.
Although this means that a number of daytime TV regulars will be axed as well as other programmes being demoted from BBC One to BBC Two.
The first switch-up will see BBC Breakfast come to an early end on BBC One at 7:35am after just over 90 minutes of live morning news coverage.
It will then move across to BBC Two where it will continue to broadcast until 9am.
Match Of The Day will take its place on the main channel until 8:30am where coverage of the running race will begin and last until 2pm.
A further hour of live coverage will then air on BBC Two to take avid viewers of the Marathon right up until 3pm in the afternoon.
As a result of this, three major BBC hits will find themselves off-air and without a home.
Property restoration series Homes Under The Hammer will have no Sunday airing meaning fans will miss out on their Martin Roberts and Dion Dublin fix.
Equally, both Animal Park and Bargain Hunt will also lose their slots with neither of them appearing on the schedules for the day.
Elsewhere, Songs Of Praise will still be aired but will move to BBC Two and air at the slightly earlier timeslot of 1:25pm.
In the evening, BBC Two will then broadcast an hour of highlights from the annual race at 6pm in order for viewers to get a quick round-up from all the happenings at the popular event.
The disruption is likely to cause upset to fans of the three axed shows but episodes will still be available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
Last year’s Marathon race, which attracted 48,000 brave runners, was the biggest ever, according to organisers.
But with even more people expected to set off on the 26.2 mile journey on April 21, crowd numbers are expected to be at an all-time high.
The iconic London route showcases some of the capital’s most popular areas including Big Ben, Tower Bridge and Buckingham Palace.
