Amol Rajan excited ahead of University Challenge returning this month
Rajan replaces Jeremy Paxman who has stepped down from hosting the show.
University Challenge host Amol Rajan has said he is “excited” ahead of viewers watching him on the show for the first time this month.
The popular quiz show, which features competing university teams and had been hosted by Jeremy Paxman, will return to screens on July 17 with Rajan as the presenter.
Journalist and broadcaster Rajan, 40, was announced last year as a replacement for Paxman, who fronted the show for 29 years.
Former Newsnight presenter Paxman, 73, hosted his last University Challenge show in May.
Rajan said: “We’re back! I’m so excited to watch along with audiences and relive this wonderful series and what a wonderful series it is, with thrilling finishes and standards as high as ever.”
Tackling the tough questions will be 28 new student teams from universities across the country, all the way from Aberdeen to Southampton.
The show has a new set and title sequence, but its format will remain the same, with contestants expected to buzz in and answer questions that range from aromatic compounds to philosopher Zeno of Citium.
Rajan is the third person to present the main series of the programme in its 61-year history. Bamber Gascoigne had launched the quiz in 1962.
He presents Radio 4’s flagship Today programme alongside Amol Rajan Interviews and has also hosted BBC podcasts on subjects including education, climate change, fairness and population.
In 2020, Rajan appeared as a contestant on a celebrity Christmas special of University Challenge, but his team from Downing College, Cambridge, lost to Durham University.
In May 2021, Paxman announced he was being treated for Parkinson’s but said his symptoms were “currently mild”.
It was revealed in an ITV documentary that his doctor diagnosed him with the disease after noticing that he was less “exuberant” on University Challenge.
Paxman said: “It turned out that he had been watching University Challenge and had noticed that my face had acquired what’s known as the Parkinson Mask.”
University Challenge returns on July 17 at 8.30pm on BBC Two and iPlayer.
