Top Of The Pops U-Turn for annual outing

BBC Radio One’s breakfast show has ‘revealed’ that Top Of The Pops will air at Christmas, despite the BBC earlier announcing the show was to be shelved.

According to Top Of The Pops presenter Fearne Cotton, talking to Chris Moyles this morning on Radio One, there will be two editions of the pop-fest this Christmas with an edition airing in its traditional Christmas Day slot, with another special for New Year.

The u-turn by BBC bosses to keep the yearly festive edition follows speculation that the pop show, which launched in 1964 and ran weekly until 2006, may be set for a return to the broadcaster. Last week reports began circulating after Head of Music at the BBC, Mark Cooper, commented that he’d like a weekly music show – and that low ratings need not be a barrier anymore as the slot would be seen more as a public service rather than an entertainment vehicle.

“It’s a Sleeping Beauty. One day it will come back, in the way that Top Gear and Dr Who came back,” Cooper told The Times.

Earlier this month the BBC announced it was not producing a Christmas Top Of The Pops for 2008 – the first time in the shows history that there wouldn’t be a seasonal countdown to the Christmas UK number one.

However after much criticism of the decision – including from X Factor supreme-o and music executive Simon Cowell – who offered to buy the Top Of The Pops format from the BBC to revive it on ITV – it now seems the show will, for Christmas at least, be returned to the screens.