Presenter Amol Rajan has announced he is leaving BBC Radio 4's Today programme after five years. The 42-year-old broadcaster said: 'The pips have sounded, and it's time to get my coat,' praising the show's team as 'consistently world class'.
Rajan revealed plans to launch his own company, channelling his 'inner entrepreneur'. He will continue to host University Challenge and his Radical with Amol Rajan podcast for the BBC. His departure from BBC News is expected this summer, and he will also step back from his Amol Rajan Interviews show. A replacement on Today will be announced in due course.
'Leaving Today might be mad,' Rajan said in a statement. 'This team is the best of the best, consistently world class, and exceptionally well led by Owenna Griffiths and Mohit Bakaya. I will always feel like I played in the editorial version of Alex Ferguson's Manchester United, or Steve Waugh's Australia.' He added that he is 'very much not leaving the BBC', calling it 'Britain's noblest cultural institution'.
Rajan joined the BBC as its first media editor in 2016, after serving as the youngest ever editor of The Independent. He became the fifth regular presenter of Today in 2021, and took over as host of University Challenge in 2023, succeeding Jeremy Paxman. His tenure has included both praise and criticism, notably a controversy in November 2023 when he used the word 'scroungers' in an interview, for which he later apologised.
