Match of the Day viewing figures without Gary Lineker released | OneFootball

Match of the Day attracted 500,000 more viewers on Saturday from last weekend's episode as intrigued football fans chose to tune in to see the shortened version of the show without Gary Lineker, pundits and even commentators.

The famous BBC football show was watched by 2.58 million people on Saturday, 500,000 more than the previous week, with many watching to see how the new format of the show would be like without the regular host of the show Lineker.

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It was even the show's largest audience of the calendar year, beating November's previous total.

Match of the Day on Saturday

The BBC shortened the hour-long football show to just 20 minutes, showing just the highlights of Saturday’s Premier League matches without any analysis from pundits and without match day commentators.

This comes after the broadcasting giant suspended Lineker for sharing his political beliefs on Twitter.

Match of the Day regulars Ian Wright and Alan Shearer stood in solidarity with their co-worker and stated to BBC bosses that they would also not participate on the TV programme.

Other presenters that make rarer appearances on the show, such as Alex Scott and Micah Richards, said they would follow suit with Shearer and Wright if they were to be asked to fill in for the absent duo.

What will happen with Sunday's football coverage?

Sunday night's Match of the Day 2 is set to follow the reduced format of the show that was seen on Saturday.

BBC’s coverage of the Women's Super League match between Chelsea and Manchester United on Sunday afternoon will also be expected to be aired with no presenters.

How did fans react to Saturday's Match of the Day?

Despite the new format of the show being stripped of its commentators and presenters, it still managed to be as popular with their regular viewers.

One viewer preferred the new format and took to Twitter to say: “I don't mind that at all [the show being 20 minutes long] to be honest. Seriously. Just do this all the time. No filler.”

While another user disagreed about how the BBC went about formatting the show. The user said: “Another missed opportunity from the BBC. Running it for the same duration with longer game time would have been ideal. It seems you're doing this on purpose and there is a reason behind it.”

Whether BBC bosses are happy that Match of the Day’s viewership has skyrocketed without Lineker is yet to be seen, but they will still want to ease tensions with the presenter and fans of the show, as the broadcasting organisation continues to face backlash from its own presenters and the public.