World of Sport
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World of Sport was a British television sport anthology programme launched on ITV on January 2,1965 in response to Grandstand. Like Grandstand, the programme ran for several hours every Saturday afternoon.
Eamonn Andrews was the first host but he was replaced by Dickie Davies in 1968. The show included not only popular segments such as On The Ball, The ITV 7 and wrestling, but also in its later years, minor sports such as women's hockey, netball and lacrosse. The programme also occasionally acquired genuinely major sporting events such as FA Cup matches.
The programme was hosted by the company holding the London weekend franchise - originally ATV, later London Weekend Television - under the ITV Sport banner, with the other ITV stations supplying footage of events in their regions.
It became the first sports programme to gain cult status, running for twenty years, but was cancelled in 1985. However, its wrestling programming has recently been re-run on The Wrestling Channel since March, 2004.
The programme's title is similar to Wide World of Sports, but it is not clear if the American show inspired the title.
External link
- ITV Wrestling listings (http://www.itvwrestling.co.uk/)
- The Wrestling Channel (http://www.thewrestlingchannel.tv/)