Jeremy Paxman has signed off from 'University Challenge' for the final time.
Jeremy Paxman has signed off from University Challenge for the final time
The 73-year-old broadcaster has served as quizmaster on the long-running BBC scholarly show - which pits two teams of four usually each representing a university together, and tests their knowledge across a broad range of subjects - since 1994.
But he signed off for the final time on Monday's episode (29.05.23) after Durham University became the 2022-2023 University Challenge champions, with author Jung Chang handing over the coveted prize.
Closing out the show, he said: "It remains for me to thank Jung Chang for presenting the trophy, all the teams who have entertained us over the past months, and you for watching. University Challenge returns later in the year and I look forward to watching it with you. So it’s goodnight for me. Goodnight."
'Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister' author Jung was honoured to have been there to present the prize, and she reflected on how the BBC staple was the "most prestigious" available to her when she arrived in the UK more than 40 years ago.
She said: "I’m really pleased to be invited here to present the trophy because University Challenge was the most prestigious programme to me when I first arrived in Britain in 1978.
"I grew up in Cultural Revolution China, when schools and the universities were all closed, (Chairman) Mao said, 'The more books you read, the more stupid you become.' "
'University Challenge' was initially fronted by Bamber Gascoigne when it initially aired on ITV from 1962 until 1987, with Jeremy taking over when the series was revived by the BBC less than a decade later.
Last year, Jeremy was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and in November he went on to discuss his final recordings of the show - which has also been played by teams made up of journalists, TV stars, and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the years - and revealed his plans for retirement.
He wrote in Saga Magazine: "For these recordings we were entertaining graduates…though we made much of their anxiety, the collection of newspaper columnists, stand-up comedians and people doing proper jobs as professors of this or that were, without exception, delighted to be in a studio in rainswept Salford.
‘It was a real pleasure to meet them. We used to make the questions easier for the old codgers, but this time they mostly seemed as tricky as the ones we put to the students.
"So this is it: retirement in all its many facets of pleasure and terror. What is to be done with all the free time? ‘I plan to join a choir, to take a postgraduate degree in understanding Renaissance art and finally to finish the wine appreciation course that I began a year ago. I may even give drawing another bash."
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