Bamber Gascoigne presents University Challenge in 1992

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Amol Rajan is taking over from Jeremy Paxman as the next University Challenge quiz show host after the 72-year-old announced he was stepping down following 28 years at the helm. But Mr Rajan’s latest BBC appointment has attracted mixed reactions. While some are praising him as a “good choice” who will “do a good job” on Twitter, others have expressed their disappointment – saying he “does so much” already with fans calling for Samira Ahmed instead.

However, Ms Ahmed revealed this week she had not been approached for the job, despite her claiming she received backing from the original quizmaster, Bamber Gascoigne, and expressing her desire to take on the job of quizzing Britain’s brainiest students.

The broadcaster tweeted earlier this week: “I think you should all know: I approached University Challenge myself months ago. I’ve had an amazing time rehearsing & being a standby presenter for it this year.

“I’ve loved working with the fab team who seem to love me & just narrated a UC documentary that’s going out on BBC2… The production team & I hope the BBC know exactly why I would love to present UC and why I think I’m the right person.

“I also got the encouragement of the lovely Bamber Gascoigne who gave me his advice some years ago on what it needed. That’s what I wanted you all to know.”

Although Mr Rajan is currently the BBC Media Editor – a post he has held since 2016 – he will reportedly step down later this year.

However, the 39-year-old will still be seen on “Amol Rajan Interviews” and heard through the airways as he will continue to present BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Mr Rajan joined the flagship news programme last year, replacing John Humphrys, the show’s longest-running presenter.

Mr Rajan’s media career did not begin at the BBC: he was appointed the editor of the Independent, where he was the first ethnic minority editor of a national British newspaper at just 29 years old.

However, he then left to become the BBC’s first ever Media Editor.  

But before Mr Rajan took on the role, he posted a tweet of a poster in September 2016, which was not used by Vote Remain in the run-up to the Brexit referendum.

The poster, designed by Saatchi and Saatchi, showed a shirtless Nigel Farage, then fronting up the Leave.EU campaign, lying in a bed with the slogan: “Don’t wake up to something you’ll regret.”

Sharing a picture of the poster, Mr Rajan wrote: “Yes it’s personal, but I have to say this poster that Remain never used is rather brilliant – and I suspect may have kept Britain in Europe.”

But some did not quite see eye to eye with Mr Rajan with one dismissing his tweet as “wishful thinking” and another claiming “people aren’t as stupid as patronising advertisers tend to think.”

Last year, Mr Rajan publicly apologised for “foolish” comments he had made about the Royal Family. In articles published by the Independent ten years ago, he had called the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge “total frauds” and said Prince Philip was a “racist buffoon”.

Apologising, he said: “In reference to very reasonable questions about some foolish commentary from a former life, I want to say I deeply regret it.

“I wrote things that were rude and immature and I look back on them now with real embarrassment, and ask myself what I was thinking, frankly.”

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Like his University Challenge predecessors, Mr Rajan also attended Cambridge and read English.

He is due to take up his new role on University Challenge in the autumn of 2023.

Mr Paxman, who announced he was stepping down earlier this week, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease last year.

In a statement, he said: “I’ve had a blast hosting this wonderful series for nearly 29 years.

“I’ve been lucky enough to work with an amazing team and to meet some of the swottier brains in the country. It gives me hope for the future.”

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