Jeremy Paxman to leave Newsnight

Nicky Campbell, anyone?

In all seriousness - a big loss to the programme but I'm not surprised this has come now. I would like to think he might gain a long form interview programme like Hardtalk - perhaps a little more UK based though. His interviews with all the party leaders in the run up to the 2010 election were really excellent and I think if you get the right guests and trey and keep it relatively topical then it would be an easy win for BBC2.

Jeremy Vine's return would be possible. Vacating his R2 slot for the long awaited R2 daytime female presenter.

I was thinking of Matt earlier, actually. I suspect, though, he'll stay put as surely Jon Snow's seat is just as open to him as Paxman's may be, only Channel 4 News may remain around a while longer and doesn't have a still-tarnished brand.

I suspect no-one will actually directly replace Paxman, however. His shifts will, I imagine, be evened out across the existing team and possibly someone new (especially if the results of the existing team aren't satisfactory). You don't replace someone like Jeremy, nor I suspect do you become someone like Jeremy. Whether he ever has a successor will be more to do with the talent and ability of the other presenters as what any manager or producer can do. And I think the decision over the last decade to move to a four-strong team (especially when three of them only cover two days a week) suggests a similar strategy to Today has adopted: even the workload around to lessen the blow when your big 'name' (Paxman/Humphrys) calls it a day.

Such a programme would be a great idea in my opinion, especially if it could be produced for television and radio (à la The Bottom Line) to help fill slots on, say, BBC Two, BBC News (Channel), Radio Four and perhaps even BBC World News?

I wonder whether this would then open the door to Jeremy being David Dimbleby's successor on Question Time. It's more likely now than before.

I just hope that Jeremy can still be involved in the 2015 election, with his usual role of interviewing politicians.

Just nobody even talk about Victoria Derbyshire. It's an insult to everybody to even consider her for a role on Newsnight. She's not deserving of even a relief role on the programme when the BBC has a plethora of other talented presenters.

According to one online newspaper article (forget which) Jeremy has no further BBC work lined up even 'despite the 2015 General Election'. Considering how very critical he's been of the corporation over the last year or two, it wouldn't surprise me if he wanted out of the corporation rather than merely Newsnight.

Eddie Mair and Emily Maitlis.

Agreed, I would put money on it.

University Challenge??? You should read the articles better

I was meaning BBC News, but if you want to be a pedant then University Challenge is an ITV production. That's very different to having direct work with the BBC, such as through BBC News.

This is your quote.
it wouldn't surprise me if he wanted out of the corporation rather than merely Newsnight.
The production company has noting to do with it. Is Graham Norton not a BBC presenter because his production company is owned by ITV?

To be fair he is 64 next week - and as much as retirement seems to be a dirty word in television maybe he's just ready to move away from the world of work.

If the rumours being put about are right, they needed him to go for financial reasons. Having spent so much bringing in the likes of Laura Kuenssberg etc, they had to find savings elsewhere. Paxo's salary was the answer. If that is true (and it may not be) I doubt they could be too generous bringing in a presenter from outside.