Amol Rajan certainly can’t wait to get started as the new host of University Challenge, as a first look footage shows him in the studio, ready and eager for the cameras to start rolling.
Last year, the BBC journalist, who recently made news for interviewing former This Morning anchor Phillip Schofield, was named as Jeremy Paxman’s replacement.
Jeremy, 72, announced his retirement from the quiz show in August last year, saying he’d had a ‘fun’ fronting it for over three decades.
A week later, Amol, 39, was announced as the new host, a post he described as “dream-come-true terrain.”
The BBC has published a footage of Amol on set ahead of the upcoming season’s premiere.
In the short 20-second video, the journalist and presenter doesn’t waste any time and tells unseen contestants: ‘Fingers on buzzers then. Here is your first starter for 10: When does the new series of University Challenge start?’
The camera then pans to an empty panel, where all of the nametags say Rajan.
The buzzer sounds, followed by a voiceover that says, ‘University of Nothing, No One!’
Amol yells ‘whoops’ after realising he may have been a little too eager, then musing that he’might be a little bit early’ as the clip stops.
Before becoming the BBC’s Media Editor, Amol worked in the newspaper sector and as a secondary presenter on The Wright Stuff.
In the years afterwards, he has been on Radio 2, The One Show, The Media Show, and Today on Radio 4.
When speaking about taking over the University Challenge role last year, he said he’d watched the show ‘obsessively for years’.
‘[I’m] addicted to its high standards, glorious title music, and inspirational contestants,’ he said.
‘It’s the best possible antidote to cynicism about young people, allowing millions of us to test our wits against the best minds of a new generation, and annoy and impress our families by barking answers from the sofa.’
He added: ‘I am very conscious that in the late, great Bamber [Gascogine], and that giant of British culture, Jeremy, I have vast shoes to fill. With his immense intellect, authority, and respect from students and viewers alike, Jeremy hands over a format, and show, as strong as ever.’
In addition to a new presenter, the University Challenge set has been’modernised,’ with revisions since the previous set, which was in existence from 2013 and saw 1,736 players participate.
The show also has a new title sequence, which will be shown when it returns this summer.
University Challenge is coming soon to BBCTwo.
Source My Celebrity Life.
