27 March 2023 , 16:42
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Freddie Flintoff warned his pal Paddy McGuinness about the downsides of A Question Of Sport before he joined the show.
Paddy, 49, took over from Sue Barker, 66, in 2021. She hosted the show for 26 years before leaving.
Ahead of starting his job, Freddie called Paddy and told him to be careful about taking on the job.
"For me personally, the pressure I felt, I felt it more for 'A Question of Sport' than Top Gear," the Top Gear host said.
"I remember Freddie [Flintoff] when I got the job, and he rang me up and said 'Oh God, be careful because it can be talked about online and stuff."
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Freddie warned Paddy before he joined the BBC show (Paddy McGuinness/Instagram)He added to The Monday Mile podcast: "[Freddie] said he stood in on a sports breakfast show for a month and he said the abuse he got, an ex-sports person, the ashes and all that.
"He said 'Even I got abuse.' So there's something about sport. People get a bit militant'."
When he first joined the show, Paddy received a lot of backlash from sports fans, just as Freddie predicted.
One user said at the time: "Paddy has nothing to do with sport and although I like Sam and Ugo they haven't got the knowledge or the wit and banter of Tuffers and Dawes. #questionofsport #QoS."
Sue left the show in 2021 (BBC/Vishal Sharma)A further former fan wrote on Twitter : "Have watched Question of Sport for a lot of years going back to the 70s but this is the first time I’ve switched over.
"Bring back Sue, Matt and Phil #questionofsport".
In response to the disgruntled fans, the BBC issued a statement to defend the changes, which read: "Question of Sport has been a firm favourite of BBC One audiences for over 50 years.
"One of the reasons the show remains successful is because the hosts and captains change.
Fans of the series complained when he first replaced Sue Barker (BBC Studios/Lee Brimble)"It’s always been important that Question of Sport remains an authentic sports quiz which we hope continues to entertain."
Towards the end of 2022, it was reported that peak viewing figures have dropped to 850,000 last series, the second since Top Gear's Paddy was brought in.
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At its lowest, 730,000 viewers tuned in to the panel show, on August 19.
When Sue, 66, was at the helm, the programme regularly used to score four to five million.