The favourite to succeed Jeremy Paxman as the presenter of University Challenge is BBC media editor Amol Rajan.
The 38-year-old BBC Radio 4 Today broadcaster is said to be the front-runner to succeed the venerable BBC quiz show host, who is retiring after nearly three decades.
A year after the tough-talking journalist, Paxman, 72, disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, it was announced that he would be leaving the programme.
According to The Telegraph, Rajan, a Cambridge University graduate who earlier participated in the celebrity edition of the programme, is now seen to be the favourite to play the part.
Rajan, who now hosts the BBC’s flagship Radio 4 Today show, has recently been included in some of the network’s largest and most contentious documentaries and interviews.
Rajan angered the Royal Family last year with a documentary on Prince William and Harry and their interactions with the media. Rajan has previously written publicly about his republican ideas.
Following the broadcast of the documentary The Princes and the Press, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, and Clarence House issued a joint statement in which they criticised the BBC for “granting credibility” to “overblown and unfounded claims from unnamed sources.” This was an unprecedented action.
At the time, the BBC defended the programme, stating that it “featured interviews with a variety of print and broadcast reporters who follow the royals closely and heard their perspectives on the connection the press has with the royal family and what impacts the stories that are published.”
The Duchess of Sussex also filed a complaint with the BBC after hearing about a podcast, Harry, Meghan And The Media, that was produced to go along with the BBC2 broadcast and claimed Meghan Markle had apologised for “misleading” the High Court.
The network said that the Duchess of Sussex had requested that it “clarify” that she had, in fact, apologised for “not remembering” to invite her former PR head to assist with the contentious royal memoir Finding Freedom.
Prior to this, she has denied helping with the initiative. She had “no desire to deceive the court on this,” according to the BBC.
Rajan, a rising star at the BBC and a former editor of the left-wing tabloid The Independent, was also compelled to apologise after making offensive statements in pieces he wrote for the newspaper in 2012.
After calling Prince Philip a “racist clown” and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s public personas a “total sham,” he apologised.
Following the broadcast of the documentary, when the comments reappeared, he tweeted: “In regard to very valid queries about some silly opinion from a prior life, I want to say I truly regret it.
I wrote several things that I now regret writing because they were crude and immature, and I honestly wonder what I was thinking at the time.
As soon as it was revealed Rajan had previously termed the notion of monarchy “absurd,” the BBC was accused of being biassed in choosing him for the position, even before the contentious programme was shown.
He stated: “Journalists are so misled by aristocratic money when it comes to our ludicrous monarchy that they can only provide a confected image to their audience.”
“Mrs. Wales is a lovely woman who does wonderful work; spare us the “Duchess of Cambridge.” She does not, however, look her best when she is hungover and, like the rest of us, is prone to foul moods and bad breath.
‘From reading about her in the news, you wouldn’t know that. Instead of a person, what you get is an idol. I have nothing at all against Catherine Middleton, Prince William, Prince Harry, or the Queen.
I dislike other royals, especially Prince Philip and the scientifically illiterate Prince Charles, who support policies that would cause millions of Africans to starve to death.
Rajan has also been a part of other BBC controversies. His “world exclusive” interview with tennis pro Novak Djokovic earlier this year drew fire for expressing the Serbian star’s anti-vax beliefs.
The tennis pro spoke about the confusion around his Australian visa being revoked in advance of the Australian Open in January owing to his vaccination status.
At the time of the interview, it was asserted that corporate insiders were worried about the interview and Rajan’s apparent “chumminess” with Djokovic.
The BBC claimed that some viewers complained that the interview was overemphasised and that it was “irresponsible” to highlight his opinions on the vaccine.
In response to the complaints, a BBC representative stated: “Our news editors judged that the interview was of genuine significance and was of interest to our audience, particularly in light of what transpired in the lead-up to the Australian Open in January.
The BBC’s exclusive interview is the first time Novak Djokovic has spoken about his position himself.”
We recognise that not everyone will agree with our selection of article running orders, but we believe that this has been a significant continuing news event that also touches on important topics like required immunisation and foreign travel limitations.
“There are still a lot of individuals who decide against being vaccinated, so we believe it’s essential to hear from everyone who has an opinion.”
However, throughout our coverage of this topic, the BBC has consistently stated the scientific and medical consensus about vaccination and its efficacy.
It follows the announcement made yesterday that Paxman, who has hosted University Challenge for 28 years, would stand down from the position, breaking the record for the longest tenured quizmaster currently working on UK television.
The 72-year-old, who was given a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis last year, has hosted the programme since the BBC brought it back in 1994.
This fall, he will tape his last episode, and from Monday, August 29, through the summer of 2023, his final season will run on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
Later this week, a new presenter will be introduced.
The broadcaster and journalist said: “I’ve enjoyed presenting this fantastic programme for over 29 years.
I’ve had the good fortune to work with a fantastic team and get to know some of the smartest people in the nation. I have hope for the future because of it.
After 25 years as its host, Mr. Paxman left the BBC’s Newsnight programme in June 2014.
He made his Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis public in May of last year. He said that after seeing him playing University Challenge during lockdown, his doctor got him checked for the fatal ailment.
The seasoned host confessed that he often fell, one of which left him with “black eyes,” and that it was “extremely difficult to realise you’re not going to get better.”
Elizabeth Clough, the mother of Mr. Paxman’s three children, and he were in a 34-year relationship until she was dumped in favour of book editor Jillian Taylor in 2017.
His resignation yesterday sparked conjecture about who would succeed him as the University Challenge host. According to Betfair, Fiona Bruce has the best odds at 2/1, followed by Richard Osman at 3/1.
Mathematician Bobby Seagull said yesterday that he was “sorry” to see Mr. Paxman leave his position as presenter of University Challenge after 28 years.
I’m, like many other fans, sorry to see the end of the reign of the great and imposing Jeremy Paxman, said Seagull, who rose to popularity as a contender on University Challenge in 2017.
He just attained institution status. Every Monday night, we have a pattern that is followed by many quiz lovers; the highlight of the night is University Challenge, with Paxman serving as its focal point since 1994.
Jeremy Paxman typically has a lot of respect for the concept of a programme where younger and older students may exhibit their knowledge since it highlights the importance of education.
The perfect example of it is University Challenge. University Challenge is all about the information, which is something that is very valued in the twenty-first century. There are gimmicky game shows that are entertaining.
Seagull said, “There was an aspect of sneering, but I think it is that terrifying nature which made it such a challenging show.”
Seagull believes Richard Osman or Kirsty Wark might take on the job. University Challenge is an unabashedly difficult quiz show that is intended to put contestants under a lot of strain and to be the most scariest quiz show ever.
Director of unscripted programming at the BBC, Kate Phillips, stated: “Jeremy has been at the forefront and centre of University Challenge’s success and is without a doubt one of the world’s greatest and most fearsome quizmasters.”
We are very appreciative of Jeremy’s devotion to the programme over the course of an amazing 28 years; we all will miss him, as will the show’s millions of viewers.
“Jeremy has been our presenter, colleague, and friend for 28 years,” said University Challenge executive producer Peter Gwyn. “The whole production team will miss him much.”
Both our audience and the generations of students who have enjoyed the opportunity to compete against him in more than a thousand matches will sadly miss him.
The new host of the programme, which pits student teams of four at competing universities and colleges against one another with questions like “starters for 10,” will be revealed later this week, according to the BBC.
Mr. Paxman, a Leeds native, began his career as a graduate trainee for the BBC in 1972, working in local radio and covering the Troubles in Belfast.
He moved from Tonight to the flagship investigative programme Panorama shortly after relocating to London in 1977, followed by appearances on the Six O’Clock News and BBC One’s Breakfast Time.
In 1989, he started working as a Newsnight presenter, a job he held until June 2014 and used to conduct high-profile political and cultural interviews in.
After 25 years, Mr. Paxman announced his retirement by hosting a Newsnight programme that included an interview with the former mayor of London, Boris Johnson, while the two rode tandem bicycles.
This year, University Challenge, the longest-running TV quiz show in Britain, marks its 60th anniversary since it debuted in 1962 under the direction of Bamber Gascoigne.
On Monday, August 29 at 9 p.m., a special documentary will be broadcast on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer to commemorate the event.
In May 2021, Mr. Paxman revealed that he was receiving Parkinson’s treatment, but that his symptoms were “currently mild.”
ITV announced a documentary earlier this month in which Mr. Paxman would discuss his diagnosis and interact with leading researchers.
In a newspaper interview last year, Mr. Paxman spoke openly about being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
The host said to The Sunday Times Magazine that he kept tripping and being harmed, leading to wounds, bruises, black eyes, and “blood everywhere.”
He did, however, confess to the newspaper that he didn’t believe he had Parkinson’s because he believed the condition only showed itself through tremors of the body.
I kept tripping over, I blamed the dog for crawling under my feet, but after the final time I fell down, straight on my face, it was a genuine disaster – black eyes, wounds, and blood everywhere – and I thought, “This isn’t right,” he recalled.
You have Parkinson’s, the doctor informed me. I had never thought of it before. I wondered, “Parkinson’s what?” he continued.
Parkinson’s disease symptoms start out mild and get progressively worse over time.
According to the NHS, the condition can also cause slow movement and stiff, inflexible muscles in addition to the involuntary tremors that most people associate with it.
Speaking on his illness, Paxman, who penned a new book titled Black Gold: The History of How Coal Made Britain during lockdown, stated that people could only ‘adjust’ but acknowledged that he finds the disease to be unexpected.
“How you feel today doesn’t necessarily reflect how you will feel tomorrow. Sometimes you feel awake, other times you feel asleep.”
He said, “It’s really annoying,” adding that he frequently felt exhausted.
“Parkinson’s is incurable; you have to live with it.” That is challenging. It’s quite difficult to realise that things won’t get better. He continued, “You hope you will, but you don’t.”
The presenter, who shares three adult children with his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Clough, said he refused to be “beaten down” by the illness and expressed hope that it would not render him completely helpless.
The diagnosis, he said, had made him sad, but he didn’t think it was a string of symptoms.
The speaker said that he was wary of support groups and didn’t want to join one.
However, he did promise that after his passing, Parkinson’s UK would receive a brain donation to aid in their research.