BBC Cuts Ski Sunday Show After 50 Years

Alpine skiing fans in the United Kingdom will have to look elsewhere for their weekly ski racing updates. After nearly 50 years on the air, the BBC has announced it will no longer produce Ski Sunday. Since 1978, Ski Sunday had been a staple in the BBC lineup, rounding up the action from the biggest alpine skiing races, as well as tapping into the latest developments across a wide array of winter sports.

“Ski Sunday has been a truly iconic programme and a much-loved part of BBC Sport’s output for many years,” head of events at BBC Sport Philip Bernie said in the announcement. “Generations of viewers have enjoyed its coverage of the best in winter sports. We are enormously proud of the role it has played in bringing these moments to audiences across the UK, and extremely grateful to the brilliant people who have delivered them, not least the current outstanding team.”

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The BBC originally launched Ski Sunday in 1978 following the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. The Games led skiing to surge in popularity across the United Kingdom, with audiences captivated by events like Franz Klammer’s dramatic gold medal run in the downhill. Taking advantage of the region’s newfound interest in skiing, the BBC launched Ski Sunday two years after the Games in an effort to capture the sport’s new fans.

In its early history, Ski Sunday meant more than just race updates. With its thrilling coverage of events, the show helped British households feel connected to the vast mountains of the Alps in a place where whitecap peaks are few and far between. It introduced millions of non-skiers to the sport, inspiring them to take holiday trips to the French, Swiss, and Austrian Alps when commercial airfares and package tours were more affordable. It also captured one of the most iconic moments in British skiing, when Konrad Bartelski took silver in Val Gardena in the Dolomites, Italy, securing Britain’s first World Cup podium.

At its peak, roughly 4.5 million viewers tuned into Ski Sunday for the latest developments in the sport. The show was widely known for its iconic theme tune “Pop Looks Bach,” which was also used as the theme tune for the BBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics until the 2006 Games. Also popular was the show’s presenter, David Vine, who was one of the UK’s most iconic and versatile television sports broadcasters.

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As time went on, Ski Sunday struggled to stay afloat as viewers gravitated away from weekly traditional sports coverage. Ultimately, the BBC decided to cancel the show amid changing viewer habits, as well as financial challenges.

“These decisions are never easy, but as audience viewing habits evolve and we work to deliver value for licence fee payers, we have to make tough choices,” Bernie said. “We remain committed to bringing audiences the very best of winter sport, above all at the Winter Olympics, across BBC Sport’s platforms.”

The show’s cancellation comes at a most inopportune time, given Team GB’s success at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics. It was the country’s most successful Winter Olympics in history, with its athletes taking home five medals, including an unprecedented three golds. One of them was Team GB’s first-ever gold medal in a snow sport, coming in the snowboard cross mixed team event. However, Team GB’s success was a non-factor in the BBC’s decision to cancel.

The show had most recently been hosted by British three-time Olympic alpine skier Chemmy Alcott, who learned of the show’s fate just hours before the announcement. Alcott had been on the show since 2021, hosting alongside freestyle specialist Ed Leigh.

“I heard yesterday morning, just before the press release,” Alcott said in a BBC Breakfast interview. “There are always rumors.”

For Alcott, seeing the show go comes as a great disappointment: “Absolutely gutted,” the skier wrote in an Instagram post.

The show’s exit did not come as a disappointment to just Alcott, but to thousands of skiers across England. After receiving the news, some of the show’s most loyal viewers set up a petition through Snowsport England to get the show reinstated. 10,000 signed the petition in the first 24 hours, and there are currently over 23,000 signatures.

“For generations of skiers and snowboarders, Ski Sunday was more than just a TV programme,” the petition description says. “It was the spark that inspired people to try snowsports for the first time, join local clubs, take family ski holidays and follow British athletes on the world stage.”

Despite the pushback, the BBC has held firm in its stance to continue with the cancellation: “Sadly, we aren’t in a position to continue with Ski Sunday, which we appreciate is disappointing news for those who enjoyed watching along with us,” the broadcaster wrote in a response. 

While the BBC will continue to show parts of the Winter Olympics, saying goodbye to Ski Sunday is definitely a tough pill to swallow for skiing fans in the United Kingdom. Its impact on the British ski scene is truly immeasurable, and despite its ultimate cancellation, millions of British skiers have Ski Sunday to thank for introducing them to the best sport in the world.

Updated September 7, 2026 at 10:42 a.m. EST to include petition information.