The Women’s Football Show – the WSL’s weekly highlights show on BBC television – suffered a dramatic decline in viewership over the course of two seasons before it was axed ahead of the current campaign, The Cutback can reveal.
The Cutback exclusively reported in August that the show would not be returning for the 2026-27 season, and the show’s average weekly audience across TV and BBC iPlayer last season was the reason. An average of 217,000 viewers watched the show in 2025-26, a 35% decline compared to 2023-24 and a 17% decline on 2024-25.
News of the show’s cancellation was met with shock and surprise from many that had worked across the production, as well as from talent that had featured on the show in recent seasons. Fans on social media also bemoaned the end of the programme, which had aired on the BBC and across the WSL’s YouTube channel since 2013.
The costs of producing The Women’s Football Show were borne by the WSL from 2024 onwards, and by England’s Football Association prior to that. The Cutback understands the weekly highlights show accounted for around a quarter of WSL Football’s total production budget for the season.
Multiple sources said that after viewing figures for the show had once again fallen in 2025-26, it was decided that those production costs would be better served elsewhere.
On the red button, the show averaged just 1,000 views per week, and when airing on BBC Three it averaged just 12,000 viewers. According to sources with knowledge of the production, the show underperformed compared with other shows airing in the same time slot: late on Sunday evenings at or around 11.30pm.
The BBC has pulled in average audiences of over 700,000 viewers for live WSL games on BBC One, with a record-breaking peak of 955,000 for Chelsea-Arsenal in 2023. In 2024-25, live WSL matches on BBC One averaged just under 700,000 average viewers, with matches on BBC Two averaging around half of that.
This season, WSL Football and the BBC have continued to show highlights of matches across YouTube and BBC iPlayer. The BBC has also launched its own dedicated women’s football YouTube channel and continues to post on its TikTok channel.
The end of a linear highlights show is not surprising against a backdrop of ageing linear audiences and the BBC’s ongoing battle to cut £500m across the corporation across the next two years – though the BBC did not cover production costs for this show. The BBC recently dropped Football Focus, the long-running weekly football magazine show, from its programming, and there has been consistent speculation about the future of Match of the Day.
A recent report from Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, revealed that 39% of audiences aged 25-34 turn to Netflix as their first choice when looking for something to watch, compared with 20% for the BBC. Among the 16-24 age group, Netflix ranks at 36%, while BBC is just 14%.
WSL Football has strategically focused on building its YouTube channel since it replaced the FA Player as the destination for free-to-view livestreams and content. At the time of writing, the WSL YouTube channel has 423,000 subscribers, nearly double that of the NWSL (253,000).
The Women’s Football Show itself was far from perfect as a television show – it often felt rushed due to its relatively short running time and often lacked detailed analysis as a result.
As audience trends continue to evolve, a return to an old-school highlights show is unlikely to be the answer. Fans can only hope that a better, digitally-native product can emerge in its place.