Carol Vorderman has set the record straight on her exit from the BBC, revealing that it 'didn't end well' after a series of disputes. The former Countdown presenter, 65, spoke to Sally Lindsay on the vodcast 'A Night In with Sally Lindsay and Channel 5', reflecting on the highs and lows of her career.
During the interview, Carol discussed a period when she was asked to host the BBC show 'Tomorrow's World' while still appearing on Channel 4's 'Countdown'. Although her BBC contract stated she would be exclusive, she negotiated to do both. However, things did not go as planned.
Carol explained: 'So I carried on doing Countdown and I did Tomorrow's World, but it didn't end well… I had been doing all these adverts for Ariel before I started on Tomorrow's World. I started on it, ratings great, everyone was very happy, it was brilliant. I flew to Australia, we're filming in Australia, having a lovely time! Got a phone call when I got back to the hotel, 'ring your agent', I rang John Mars, [he was] saying, 'You've got to get on the first plane home, cancel filming'.'
She continued: 'Back to England... blah, blah, blah, blah, loads of arguments went on, and then in the end, they said, 'You're sacked'. I had other jobs for the BBC at the time. Gone from those as well. Everything gone. I had a column in the Radio Times. I was doing education shows I've been doing for a long time. Everything gone. I thought, 'What?'. Front page news, sacked.'
However, Carol decided to fight back. She reminded people that other BBC presenters were also doing adverts outside the BBC. She said: 'So I thought, 'Right, I'm not having this'. So I fought back through the press and I wrote articles saying, 'Hang on, this is just sexism'. I'm sacked for doing an advert when Noel Edmonds is doing Noel's Maxwell House coffee, party adverts, and he was doing Noel's House Party and Noel's Maxwell House Party adverts. Terry Wogan was doing, I think it was British Gas. Loads of the men were doing commercials. Well, of course, the readers then went, 'Yeah, she's right'. The ratings of Tomorrow's World dropped through the floor. [BBC] had nowhere to go….So, I remained sacked and so that was that.'
Two months later, Carol received a mysterious phone call while in the Countdown make-up room. The deputy editor of Tomorrow's World offered her the job back. She agreed to meet the editor, but during the meeting, he made a remark that changed her mind. Carol recalled: 'So then he said, fatal words, he said, 'But if you tell anyone that we're offering you your job back, we will deny it'. So I went, 'Fine', rang my agent as soon as we came out and I went, 'John, keep them stringing along until a week or two before transmission and then tell them where to go'.'
Carol later worked for BBC Radio Wales but left in 2023 due to wanting to share her political views, which conflicted with the BBC's updated social media guidelines.
