The BBC has canceled the Top Of The Pops Christmas special.
The once celebrated music show went off the air weekly in 2006, but continued to air its New Year’s and holiday specials. However, there are reports that this year’s special will not air, and will be called off after 57 years.
A source told The Sun: “The bosses [de la BBC] they felt that the cost of creating one such program was too high to justify it. Creating the studio and bringing together several artists to perform just for this show required a disproportionate amount of resources.
“But it will be seen as a sad end to an era by millions of Brits who saw it as a must-see on Christmas Day alongside the Queen’s Speech.”
NME has contacted the BBC for comment and confirmation that the program has been withdrawn.
The weekly Top Of The Pops show premiered in 1964, the year it had its first holiday special, which first aired on Christmas Eve. The following year it began broadcasting on Christmas Day, where it has remained ever since and featured the biggest hits of the year.
For their part, Ed Sheeran, Queen and Clean Bandit are among the artists whose songs are part of the most watched Christmas songs of all time in the United Kingdom.
The Official Charts Company produced a top 40 list for BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds showing the most widely played party hits since the company began recording in 1952.
Sheeran’s 2017 song ‘Perfect’ (from the album ‘÷’) became the most watched Christmas number of all time in the UK, followed by Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, which was the only song by Christmas number one twice too: first i. 1975, and again in 1991 after the death of Freddie Mercury.
On Christmas Day this year, Raidió 2 will broadcast the top 40 songs.
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