Jeremy Paxman has left fans forlorn after announcing his departure from University Challenge, the longest running quiz show on the BBC television.
The 72-year-old announced last month that he was stepping down as the show’s host after 28 years at the helm.
It comes after the former Newsnight presenter revealed last year that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
He said at the time his symptoms were “currently mild” but it appears he has taken the decision to lighten his workload by giving up his longstanding University Challenge gig.
Mr Paxman is set to be replaced by fellow BBC journalist Amol Rajan.
When will Jeremy Paxman make his last appearance on the show?
Jeremy Paxman’s final series of University Challenge kick-started last week, with his final episode set to be broadcast in spring 2023 when the academic year wraps up with a new winner.
The series is currently in the midst of the long process of whittling down the competing institutions to a final two.
The second of the academic quiz’s first-round matches will take place on Monday (September 5) at 8.30pm.
The 30-minute BBC2 programme will see four students from the Open University rival a team from Newcastle University in a bid to reach the second stage of the competition, which has been running for 60 years.
Imperial College London were crowned the 2022 champions, defeating the University of Reading in the final, which was broadcast in April.
Jeremy Paxman’s University Challenge replacement and earnings
Amol Rajan was announced as Paxman’s successor only days after his decision to step down was revealed.
The 39-year-old is a well-known figure in the BBC, having taken on a myriad of roles since moving across to the publicly-owned broadcaster.
Born in Calcutta, India, the married father-of-three was raised in Tooting in south-west London and later studied at Cambridge University.
He became the youngest editor of a broadsheet newspaper in Britain when he took the helm of The Independent in 2013, aged only 29.
Rajan went on to become the BBC’s media editor in December 2016, taking charge of The Media Show on Radio 4, a role examining the current state of the media each week.
Since joining the BBC, Rajan has provided holiday cover for a number of Radio 2 presenters, including Simon Mayo, Jeremy Vine and Zoe Ball.
He has also occasionally presented The One Show.
In 2021 Rajan joined Radio 4’s prestigious and long-running early-morning news and current-affairs show, the Today programme, as a presenter.
In December, he apologised in a statement on Twitter for the comments he made in a 2012 article, written for The Independent, in which he called the Duke of Edinburgh a “racist buffoon”.
The BBC's 2021/22 annual report showed Rajan was on a salary of £325,000-£329,999 and, according to Sky News, he is expected to be paid more as the host of University Challenge.
The BBC has been pushing to improve diversity on the screen in recent years. Last year BBC News presenter and news anchor Clive Myrie replaced John Humphrys as host of Mastermind after the former Today Program host stepped down after 18 years.
