Jeremy Paxman steps down as University Challenge host

Jeremy Paxman's replacement will be announced later this week

Jeremy Paxman is to step down as host of TV quiz University Challenge after more than 28 years.

The former Newsnight presenter became just the second host of the long-running show in 1994, and his last episode will be broadcast next summer.

The news comes a year after the broadcaster revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

"I've had a blast hosting this wonderful series for nearly 29 years," Paxman, 72, said in a statement.

"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."

The formidable former journalist took over as host when the student quiz show was revived by the BBC, and has already surpassed the reign of his predecessor Bamber Gascoigne, who presented it on ITV from 1962 to 1987.

Paxman will film his final episodes this autumn and his replacement will be announced later this week.

It is not yet known who is being considered for the role, but Kirsty Wark - one of Paxman's former Newsnight colleagues - filled in for him for a Children In Need charity special edition of the quiz in 2021.

BBC broadcaster Samira Ahmed threw her hat into the ring via Twitter, noting she had recently been on standby to present University Challenge.

"The production team and I hope the BBC know exactly why I would love to present UC and why I think I'm the right person," she said.

TV critic Scott Bryan told BBC News that Victoria Coren-Mitchell, who hosts another quiz show, Only Connect, could also be in the mix, along with historian, author and presenter Lucy Worsley.

Other possible replacements, according to the bookmakers, include Sandi Toksvig, Warwick Davis and Richard Ayoade, as well as Gyles Brandreth and Fiona Bruce.

Bryan urged whoever does get the job to be themselves and not to try to be like Paxman in style. "Paxman can only be Paxman," he said.

"Although, of course, it's a big challenge of who on earth is going to be filling that hot seat, replacing Jeremy Paxman? I feel people will still be be watching University Challenge because it is part of something they have always done, their families have done and they always will continue."

'The pinnacle of the quiz night'

Former University Challenge contestant Bobby Seagull told BBC Radio 4's World At One he was sad to see the end of "the time of the great and formidable Jeremy Paxman".

"He has just become an institution," said Seagull. "Many quiz fans every Monday night, we have a routine. The pinnacle of the quiz night is University Challenge - Paxman since 1994 has been the centrepiece of that."

While formidable, Paxman is not irreplaceable, however, and maths teacher Seagull thinks Wark or former Pointless host and novelist Richard Osman could be contenders to helm the quiz going forward.

'One of the world's finest quizmasters'

University Challenge executive producer Peter Gwyn said: "Jeremy has been our presenter, colleague and friend for 28 years, and everyone on the University Challenge production team will miss him greatly.

"He'll be sorely missed too by both our audience and by the generations of students who've relished the chance to pit themselves against him in more than 1,000 matches."

Kate Phillips, the BBC's director of unscripted, said Paxman was "without doubt one of the world's finest, and most formidable quizmasters" and had been "at the front and centre of the show's success".

She added: "We are hugely grateful to Jeremy for his dedication to the programme for an incredible 28 years, he will be much missed by us all and the show's millions of viewers."

In May 2021, Paxman revealed he had been treated for Parkinson's, saying at the time his symptoms were "currently mild".

Starter for 10

Earlier this month, ITV announced a documentary in which Paxman will reflect on his diagnosis and investigate the condition, including by attending an English National Ballet therapy dance class and observing a brain dissection.

Meanwhile, a documentary to mark University Challenge's 60th anniversary will be broadcast on BBC Two on 29 August.

The programme pits teams of university students against each other with questions including the famous "starter for 10", introducing a first question worth 10 points.

That phrase provided the title of a 2003 novel by David Nicholls about a young man's attempts to get onto the show, which was turned into a film starring James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch in 2006.

Celebrities who took part in University Challenge in their student days include Stephen Fry, Clive James, Miriam Margolyes and Julian Fellowes.