Latest news with #Saturday night
Telegraph
07-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
ITV is going to regret hiring Gary Lineker
ITV is said to be 'really excited' about snapping up Gary Lineker to present its new game show, The Box, set to air next year. The channel presumably sees the former Match Of The Day host as a potential saviour of the Saturday night slot, once the most important and coveted moment on terrestrial TV's weekly calendar, but now struggling to retain any relevance in the era of the big streaming services. Given Lineker's seemingly insatiable need to make controversial political pronouncements, it's a strategy that looks more likely to give ITV nightmares than a new frontman in the mould of Bruce Forsyth. It's reported that ITV has been 'sniffing around' the 64-year-old Lineker for some time. The channel is facing a potentially existential problem as it seeks a replacement for Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, which came to an end last year. It had been a game show that – uniquely in the modern era – recaptured the pure light-entertainment magic of the 1970s to the 1990s, when families across the country would routinely sit down together to watch their favourite programmes, providing huge viewing figures and advertising revenues to match. Given that desperate need, replacing two universally loved and accomplished entertainers such as Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly with a football presenter with a habit for putting his foot in it is a dangerous gamble. Given Lineker was paid a yearly salary of £1.35m by the BBC, recruiting Lineker is likely to be an expensive risk as well as a reputational one. What ITV has on its hands is less 'Mr Saturday Night' and more a deeply divisive figure who is as likely to have viewers turning off as tuning in. So ITV's celebrations might be short-lived, especially if it is unable to police his frequent public interventions on social media. BBC rules dictate that staff must uphold the corporation's impartiality on personal social accounts. The 2021 ITV guidelines state: 'Online communications, especially relating to news, political, religious and industry issues, should be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality.' So will it do what the BBC seemingly never could and insist he finally shuts up? Perhaps new colleagues might demand the channel's chiefs do so, having seen the tension his behaviour caused among the rank-and-file at the BBC. As long ago as 2018, Lineker was criticised by the BBC's cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew for his use of social media. 'Please keep your political views, whatever they are and whatever the subject, to yourself,' said Agnew. 'I'd be sacked if I followed your example.' Lineker has long preached a kind of morally lofty and pseudo-neutral liberalism – 'Linekerism' if you will – but this has never really stood up to scrutiny. His assertion that he is politically neutral has been continually undermined, such as when he described the attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7 2023 as 'that Hamas thing' and said of the ensuing war in Gaza, 'I can't think of anything that I've seen worse in my lifetime '. This despite his lifetime encompassing the Vietnam War, the Yugoslavian Civil War, the Rwandan genocide, the Iraq War and the rise of Isis to name just a few. In 2023, Lineker criticised the government's policy of stopping migrants in the English Channel as 'an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s'. Even a spokesperson for Sir Keir Starmer said comparisons with 1930s Germany 'aren't always the best way' to make an argument. There is no huge influx. We take far fewer refugees than other major European countries. This is just an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s, and I'm out of order? — Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 7, 2023 The BBC temporarily suspended Lineker but he returned a week later after its director-general, Tim Davie, confirmed the presenter had agreed to abide by the corporation's guidelines. But in May this year it was announced Lineker would leave the BBC at the end of the Premier League season following further controversy after he shared a pro-Palestine video on his Instagram account. The clip, produced by the campaign group Palestine Lobby, featured an anti-Semitic rat emoji. Lineker later apologised, pleading ignorance and saying he stands 'against all forms of racism', which just happens to be a favourite expression of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. But he has since double backed (as any proud Linekerist would). When asked last week if his exit from the BBC was 'of his own volition, or a case of quit or be quitted', he replied, 'the latter'. Lineker has also stated he believes his apology should have been enough to keep his job on Match Of The Day. Instead, he will now be preparing for his new role as host of The Box, a Norwegian concept that sees a dozen celebrities complete a series of challenges whilst being stuck in containers. The show is said to be a mix of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and SAS: Who Dares Wins. But executives at ITV may soon be wishing they themselves were trapped in a tunnel filled with mealworms or being dropped out of a helicopter into a freezing ocean rather than have to police the Gospel of Gary unshackled by the constrictions of the licence fee.
Yahoo
06-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
England icon Gary Lineker lands huge new hosting job at ITV after controversial BBC departure
Lineker left job BBC in May Now landed new role with rival broadcaster Will front Saturday night game show Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱 WHAT HAPPENED? Lineker is set to present a new game show on ITV called The Box, according to The Sun. The new show will be broadcast on Saturday evenings and is expected to replace Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. The show is based on a popular Norwegian programme and involves 12 celebrities undertaking challenges while inside a box. THE BIGGER PICTURE The former England star confirmed he was quitting the BBC back in May amid more controversy after a social media post about Zionism that included an illustration of a rat, considering to be an anti-Semitic insult. He has previously revealed he had received death threats after retweeting a social media post calling for Israel to be banned from football events and was also temporarily suspended from his role as Match of the Day presenter in 2023 after criticising the government's immigration policy. WHAT HAS BEEN SAID A source has told fans what to expect from Lineker's new show, via The Sun: "The Box is massive in Norway, and the rights were quickly sold to Denmark and now the UK. ITV are really excited about it - and believe they have finally found a worthy successor to Saturday Night Takeaway. They have long been sniffing around Gary and just needed to find the right format for him. They're confident they've found that now, and the BBC's loss is their gain.' WHAT NEXT FOR LINEKER? The Box is scheduled to start filming later this year and is currently slated to be broadcast in 2026. An insider told The Sun: "The scheduling hasn't yet been confirmed but filming takes place in the autumn, and the series is due to air early spring. It looks likely to get a Saturday night slot though, but obviously it's all still to play for."
