Samira Ahmed favourite to replace John Humphrys on Mastermind as host

John Humphrys has hosted the show for 18 years
Samira Ahmed is the favourite
PA
Luke O'Reilly9 February 2021

Samira Ahmed is the favourite to replace John Humphrys as the new host of Mastermind.

Mr Humphrys announced his departure from the popular gameshow last week after hosting it for 18 years.

Since then a number of presenters have been floated as replacements for the veteran broadcaster - including Naga Munchetty, Anne Hegerty, and Richard Osman.

However, Ms Ahmed has emerged as the favourite candidate, The Telegraph reports. She is known for presenting Newswatch, as well as Front Row on Radio 4 and her BBC documentary on the history of Iran.

Ladbrokes now have her 2/1 to be the next host.

In January of last year, Ms Ahmed won a sex discrimination equal pay claim against the BBC after taking her case to an employment tribunal.

She questioned why she was paid £465 per episode of Newswatch while Jeremy Vine was paid up to £3,000 for each episode of Points Of View, work she described as comparable.

The corporation had argued that Newswatch was a “relatively niche” programme which aired on the BBC News channel, while Points Of View is “extremely well-known”.

The unanimous judgment said Ms Ahmed’s work was like that done by Vine, and the BBC had failed to prove the pay gap was not because of sex discrimination.

She and the BBC later reached a settlement.

Ms Ahmed said after winning her claim that “no woman wants to have to take action against their own employer.

“I love working for the BBC. I’m glad it’s been resolved.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in