Sportsnight Sportsnight Sportsnight was a midweek BBC television sports programme that ran from 1968 until 1997. "Sportsnight" was a successor to "Sportsview" which started on 8 April 1954. "Sportsview" was devised by Paul Fox, later Controller of BBC1 and Peter Dimmock was the original host for a decade (and did host occasional editions from 1964-68) . The BBC Sports Personality of the Year award evolved as a spin-off from "Sportsview" when the last show of its inception year featured the "Sports Review of 1954". Frank Bough took over as main host in 1964 and "Sportsview" was replaced by "Sportsnight with Coleman"
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award was created by Paul Fox, who thought of the idea while he was editor of the magazine show "Sportsview". The first award ceremony took place in 1954 as part of "Sportsview", and was presented by Peter Dimmock. For the first show, votes were sent by postcard, and rules presented in a "Radio Times" article stipulated that nominations were restricted to athletes who had featured on the "Sportsview" programme since April. Approximately 14,500 votes were cast, and Christopher Chataway beat Roger Bannister to win the inaugural BBC Sportsview's Personality of the Year Award. Four people have won the award more than