[Steve in Pudsey]

More than just meetings - was she not effectively understudy to Paxman should he have been unavailable during the pandemic? Presumably she had recorded pilots with the team as part of that.

[bilky asko]

With Samira Ahmed, you've got a knowledgeable, fluent, personable host, with a provenance that gives her an unimpeachable quality that really suits the show, and not someone who used to play the call handler on The Wright Stuff (for example).

[Keith]

With Samira Ahmed, you've got a knowledgeable, fluent, personable host, with a provenance that gives her an unimpeachable quality that really suits the show, and not someone who used to play the call handler on The Wright Stuff (for example).

A cynic might suggest that Samira suing the BBC for equal pay for presenting Newswatch (and winning) based on Vine's salary for Points of View has hindered her long term career prospects.

[Andrew]

A cynic might suggest that Samira suing the BBC for equal pay for presenting Newswatch (and winning) based on Vine's salary for Points of View has hindered her long term career prospects.

She would probably have wanted the same salary as Paxman was on

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that Amol is being paid less considering he doesn’t have a million years experience like Paxman had

[RhysJR]

Has there ever been a show with two 200+ point scores before?

It does feel, especially tonight, that Amol reads at a quicker pace than Jeremy. Not sure if that is a negative or a positive, but it did produce two extremely high scores tonight.

Still can't take to the new set, the opening shot especially still looks all wrong, the framing making Amol look tiny.

[RhysJR]

Congratulations to Roger Tilling for today reaching a thousand episodes as the University Challenge announcer.

twitter.com 

[RhysJR]

One if the Christmas episodes has been pulled after two of the contestants complained that there requirements for their disabilities were not fulfilled.

The programme has on a few occasions in recent years provided adequate requirements for blind contestants (the picture rounds being text based and having a braille option), so it is very disgeartening that for some reason this has not been delivered to standard.

Presumably the affected team(s) did not qualify for the semi-finals and there will be just one less heat aired. I think the format is usually something like eight heats with the top four scores advancing.

www.bbc.co.uk 

University Challenge: Christmas episode axed after ableism complaints - BBC News
Two contestants in the Christmas version of the BBC quiz say their disabilities …
  Source: www.bbc.co.uk

[XIII]

Lifted Entertainment would be the ones to take the blame in this since they make the programme.

[JAS84]

Yeah - ITV - UC was originally made by Granada and Lifted is the recent rebrand of ITV Studios' game show division. Yet it would've been the BBC getting the complaints had that episode aired and people saw those contestants clearly in distress.