The BBC has been heavily criticised by snooker fans after it pulled coverage of a record-breaking 100-minute frame between Mark Allen and Wu Yize during the World Snooker Championship semi-final. The frame, which lasted 100 minutes and 21 seconds, was the longest in the tournament's history. However, live coverage was moved to iPlayer and replaced on BBC Two with an old episode of House of Games.
Viewers expressed outrage on social media, with one describing the decision as 'genuinely astonishing' and another calling it a 'disgrace'. Some fans claimed to have lodged formal complaints. The frame featured a prolonged stalemate where the black ball sat on the lip of a corner pocket, prompting referee Marcel Eckhardt to warn both players that the frame would be re-racked if the deadlock continued.
Richard Osman, the former presenter of House of Games, criticised the decision on X, noting that 1.4 million people were watching the snooker at the time it was taken off air, making it the highest-rated frame of the championship. He acknowledged the difficulty of the decision but suggested that viewers are now accustomed to using iPlayer and the Red Button.
This was not the first technical issue during the match. Days earlier, coverage of the same semi-final was interrupted for 12 minutes due to a power problem at the Crucible Theatre, which the BBC attributed to a technical fault. Presenter Hazel Irvine apologised on air, confirming the issue was unrelated to the broadcaster's meter.
