´óÏó´«Ã½ Sports Personality of the Year
I'm writing this at too early an hour on the train from Birmingham to London. But - our biggest ever studio audience for Sports Personality of the Year, and some great moments.
I don't think any of us there - or I hope the TV audience - will forget the emotion of . When we moved out of the studio at Television Centre and brought in thousands of members of the public to join the event, this is exactly what we wanted. The audience saluted Sir Bobby with a two-minute standing ovation. It was a world away from the polite applause of the old version of the show.
It was also a surprise result for the main award. The bookies had as favourite for pretty much the whole year - but it was . I'm strictly neutral, of course, but it was a wonderful accolade for a sportsman who's been at the top for a decade. I was sitting right behind his dad Enzo, and there's no question about how much the awards meant to the Calzaghe family.
It was also exciting to see seizing his moment. From the reaction of people I talked to last night, a star was born - already as a motorbike rider, but now as a pianist too. James came fourth, narrowly behind Ricky Hatton.
But as ever with Sports Personality there are questions from viewers, so I'll deal with some of them now and then drop back later to deal with any others.
First, some people have asked how the trophy was in Las Vegas unless we knew in advance who was going to win. Simple: we had two trophies. If you were watching at the beginning, Zara Phillips returned her trophy in Birmingham - and we had a replica in the US in case one of the boxers won.
Second, there's still been some debate on the message boards and in the papers about how "the ´óÏó´«Ã½" decides the awards. There are just two that are in our gift: Lifetime Achievement and the Helen Rollason Award. But the others are decided by independent judging panels and, in the case of the main award, we have very little indeed to do with it. The . Then it's the public who decide the winner on the night.
Finally for now, the issue of pro-England bias: I hope is part of the answer to that. But we do understand the disappointment of Scottish football fans after the tremendous . Again, though, the decision to make the the team of the year was taken by our independent judges and there were two Scots among them. The aim was to make sure everyone had a fair shout.
But whether you agreed or disagreed with the outcomes, we hope you enjoyed the show. We're very proud of it, and it'll be back in a year's time - in a venue still to be decided - but with the goal of being even bigger and better.
Update: the audience figures are just in, and they're the best for some years. From 5.1m two years ago and 5.8m last year, this year's show averaged 6.8m.
(Update 2:)
Sports Personality voting
1. Joe Calzaghe 177,748 (28.19%)
2. Lewis Hamilton 122,649 (19.45%)
3. Ricky Hatton 85,280 (13.53%)
4. James Toseland 84,570 (13.41%)
5. Jason Robinson 67,061 (10.64%)
6. Paula Radcliffe 34,895 (5.53%)
7. Jonny Wilkinson 30,302 (4.81%)
8. Andy Murray 13,242 (2.1%)
9. Justin Rose 10,227 (1.62%)
10. Christine Ohuruogu 4,481 (0.71%)
