Technical Glitch Exposes The BBC's Real Olympics Set – And It's Nothing Like What You See On TV

The magic of TV.
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If you’ve spent the last two weeks believing the BBC’s team of Olympics presenters are out in Tokyo, prepare to have your mind blown. 

There was a technical glitch during Saturday’s edition of Olympic Breakfast that proved that the skyline of the Japanese capital – which can be seen as the hosts introduce and dissect all the action from the Games – isn’t actually real. 

The blip exposed that the show’s real set is actually a huge green screen, which has scenes from Tokyo computer generated for viewers at home. 

Open Image Modal
BBC Olympics studio is actually a giant green screen
BBC

In actual fact, the majority of the BBC’s presentational team are based here in the UK, rather than out in Japan, due to the pandemic. 

The likes Alex Scott, Clare Balding, Dan Walker and Sam Quek are all working from a hi-tech BBC Sport studio in Salford near Manchester. 

If you follow Dan on Twitter, you might already know about the set, as he regularly tweets pictures and videos from the green studio. 

On Friday, he even tweeted how Sam Quek had to change one of her outfits because it was playing havoc with the virtual background. 

 

The virtual reality studio has been in operation at the BBC’s Dock10 studios in Salford since 2019, and has been used for a number of other sports productions, including Match of the Day and Football Focus.