TV & Newspapers 'Those we lost this year' - before the year has ended

[WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]

I love the annual retrospectives at the end of the year, especially looking back on the famous people we said Goodbye to - invariably always real end of an era stuff and very poignant.

However, it bugs me every year that they compile and publish/screen their tributes when there is still a week or more of the year remaining (the BBC one was on 22 Dec) - especially considering that the last week of December seems (to me, maybe not statistically significant) to have a disproportionately high number of deaths; whether people try to 'hold on' for one last Christmas or just the general effects of winter?

There are usually some big names who are thus omitted from the lists. This year, that includes hugely famous and influential people like Vivienne Westwood, Pele, Barbara Walters and Pope Benedict. If the Queen had hung on another two and a half months, she would also apparently not have qualified as 'one of the famous people who died this year'!

What do they do when this (invariably) happens? Is it just their 'bad luck' that they missed the boat? Do they tack them on to the following year's memorials, even though they didn't die in that year? That would be weird as it's 'those we lost in 2022' and not the much less snappily-titled 'those we lost between 22nd Dec 2021 and 21st Dec 2022'.

Am I the only one who is annoyed by this? Could they not wait until the first few days of January, to ensure they've included everybody for the relevant year just gone? Why are we so eager to celebrate or pay tribute to a date/period before it's actually arrived/finished?!

It’s easy filler copy for the days around Christmas when there’s not much news.

If they waited till the new year a) some poor sod would have to update it when they’d rather be eating mince pies; b) there would be less space once real news starts properly again; and c) fewer people would have time to read it.

I assume it written early so journalists can have a holiday.

I get that it's easy filler - and something that can be gradually compiled throughout the year - but journalists (certainly newsroom teams as a whole) don't ever stop at all.

The only reason they don't publish papers on Christmas Day is, I assume, because hardly any shops are open to sell them; after all, they do publish on Boxing Day, which will have required at least some last-minute (i.e. Christmas Day) editorial sign-off, then printing and distribution - or do they just take them all out to the shops on Christmas Eve?!

Would it really be so terrible to wait until everybody is back and then publish it the first Saturday or Sunday in the new year? They could already have it 98% complete, so it would only be a case of adding the last few, checking and finalising.

Those that care about these things would prefer a proper complete tribute at an appropriate time; and those that don't care about nostalgic reviews aren't any more likely to care a week or two earlier, surely?