Amol Rajan, the presenter of the New University Challenge, previously participated in the infamously difficult quiz show as a participant, but had a nightmare when his team answered incorrectly 14 out of the evening’s 18 questions.
Rajan, 39, captained a team from Downing College in Cambridge, which fell to Durham University by a score of 90 to 65, in a celebrity Christmas special.
Only two of the seven questions the BBC media editor answered on his own were accurate.
His inaccurate responses included omitting the artist Francis Bacon, identifying an American city wrongly, and selecting tuna when asked to describe several kinds of goldfish.
He was accompanied by presenter Dharshini David from the BBC, theoretical physicist Sir John Pendry, and novelist Louise Dean.
Durham’s squad, which included its captain Sarah Keith-Lucas, 2003 graduate and BBC Weather Presenter Hugh Pearman, stand-up comic Ed Gamble, and YouTuber and physicist Dr. Becky Smethurst, went up against him.
The 39-year-old will take over as host of the programme from Jeremy Paxman, the BBC confirmed on Wednesday.
Paxman will host the quiz show for one more season before assuming the position in the fall of 2023. The position is the pinnacle of a rapid climb.
He transitioned from a researcher who had to instruct viewers on when to applaud on Channel 5’s mid-morning talk show The Wright Stuff to a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme in only 15 years.
He was recruited to the position of editor of The Independent newspaper in 2013 at the age of 29 by Russian media tycoon Evgeny Lebedev.
Rajan has his own television interview series in addition to anchoring the main news show. Additionally, he has served as a stand-in presenter for Jeremy Vine and Zoe Ball’s Radio 2 broadcasts in addition to hosting episodes of The One Show.
Additionally, he has six years of experience as the BBC media editor, a role he will leave when he accepts the University Challenge position.
Rajan’s most recent appointment has only served to accentuate the joke that it is difficult to find a show that is not headed by him in broadcasting circles.
According to a top BBC source, “people are furious.”
“He makes every concert happen.” They have to find him work since they pay him so well.
Another prominent businessperson said, “It is not always helpful for them when someone becomes the flavour of the month and [the BBC] throws everything at them.
“The public might rapidly get jaded if they feel that someone is pushing themselves on them constantly.”
Prior to his hiring, there had also been rumours that a woman should take over the quiz show’s chair; over the show’s 60-year run, Paxman, 72, and the late Bamber Gascogine had served as hosts.
A fellow BBC presenter, Samira Ahmed, intimated that she was dissatisfied at not being given the job when Paxman’s resignation was first revealed earlier this week.
Ahmed, who previously prevailed in a lawsuit for unfair pay against the BBC, claimed to have contacted the production staff about the position after serving as a stand-in presenter for the programme for the preceding 12 months.
I contacted University Challenge on my own some months ago. I’ve enjoyed working with the wonderful staff, who seem to like me, and I just provided the narration for a University Challenge (UC) programme that will air on BBC Two.
But nobody from the BBC has approached me about taking over as of yet. I’ve always been content to go through a fair and honest procedure and have my abilities evaluated. I remain,” she said.
After a competing station attempted to hire Rajan away from the Corporation, the BBC gave him a larger position the previous year.
To retain him, the BBC put up a financial and programming package.
He met with ITV after they asked him about playing Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain, an ITV insider informed the Daily Mail.
They offered it to him, and when he returned to the BBC, he informed them about the approach.
“They promised him more, he returned to ITV, they offered him more, he went back to the Beeb, then back to ITV, and they halted discussions because they felt he was grossly taking advantage of them.”
Since the BBC was unaware of this, he was able to get his desired results by using his clout with them.
Rajan is already one of the highest-paid employees at the company.
In the previous year, his remuneration grew by nearly £80,000 to up to £329,999 per year, according to the BBC’s most recent annual report. He is also anticipated to get a sizeable pay package to host the quiz.
Rajan has also said that he would dedicate his first start for 10 to his “loving” late father, who relocated his family to the UK in quest of a better life. This is a significant milestone for Rajan.
After learning of his new position, he declared: “Being chosen to host my favourite TV show is the stuff of dreams.
I’ve been hooked to University Challenge’s high standards, beautiful theme music, and motivational candidates for years.
It allows millions of us to pit our wits against the brightest brains of a new generation and irritate and dazzle our family by shouting answers from the couch. It is the finest conceivable antidote to scepticism about young people.
The 39-year-old was sent to London at the age of three after being born to Hindu parents in Calcutta, India.
His mother was a dinner lady, a nursery teacher, and then worked in administration at the Foreign Office. His father, P. Varadarajan, was the general manager of a trade firm.
He enrolled to study English at Downing College in Cambridge while attending state-run schools and lived in Tooting, south London, and bought a pair of mustard corduroys for the interview.
He told the Mail, “I felt that’s what you were meant to do.” I had previously considered rich people to be a different race. I compared Eton to Mordor.
In a statement accompanying his most recent appointment, he acknowledged his father’s contribution once more, writing: “I won’t stop thinking today about my late, beloved Dad, whose devotion to education brought him to England, whose love of knowledge I ingested as a child, and whose belief in the noble challenge of university so shaped my life.”
I’ll dedicate my first “beginning for 10” to him and the many quiz addicts who, like me, like the few moments when they know the solution before the pupils.
He would have been thrilled to watch me do this concert. Then then, as my brother claims, he would have enjoyed it even more if I had paid off my mortgage, Rajan said, claiming to be in a “pit of sadness” since his passing.