Jon Sopel has opened up about his success after leaving the BBC and revealed whether he thinks his ex-colleagues “hate” him.
The former chief political correspondent, 65, who joined the broadcaster at the age of 24, quit the BBC with Emily Maitlis in 2022 and launched The News Agents podcast with Lewis Goodall the same year.
Since its launch, The News Agents has established itself as one of the UK’s most popular daily news podcasts, celebrating 100 million downloads last July.
Speaking to The Times, Sopel said of what many considered as a bold career move: “At the BBC there was a view that once you left you’d never do anything significant again.
“But since we’ve been doing News Agents, we’ve found that it really resonates. We’ve just reached 100 million downloads — about 200,000 listeners per show.”
He claimed: “So, broadly speaking, we’re now beating anything the BBC has to offer.”
According to the most recent figures, Newsnight - formerly fronted by Maitlis - has a viewership of just under 300,000, with budget cuts prompting Mark Urban to also leave the programme last April.
Addressing whether his former colleagues “hate” him for moving on, Sopel said: “Look, I have a lot of friends at the BBC, but they do give you a different sendoff if you are being made redundant or retiring compared with what you get if you launch a competitive programme.”
When questioned about his earnings, The News Agents host responded: “I’m doing fine, thanks.”
Sopel described his decision to leave the BBC as a “wrench” in a statement shared to X/Twitter in 2022.
“Opportunities like this just don’t come along very often,” he wrote. “But [I] am sad to leave the BBC which has been home for so long."
He continued: "I leave with nothing but good feelings towards the Corporation, and wish all the best to my colleagues and friends there.”
Jonathan Munro, interim director of BBC News, thanked the pair for their work at the corporation at the time.
He said in a statement: "We’d like to thank both Emily and Jon for their many years of sterling service to the BBC and wish them the very best in their new endeavours at Global."
