Des Lynam is rejoining the BBC, according to a report in The Sun, to host a special sporting version of the Mastermind quiz show.
As The Sun put it: “It’s nearly a decade since the silver-topped smoothie famously defected from the Beeb to ITV.
“The ex-Grandstand host switched sides in 1999 after the BBC lost rights to the Premiership football highlights to their bitter rival.
“But now the 65-year-old TV legend has been convinced to return to his old employers to front new show Sport Mastermind — a spin-off of the classic BBC2 quiz.”
According to the newspaper report, the weekly series will see sports fans braving the big black chair to answer questions from Lynam about their specialist subject then sports general knowledge.
It will kick off this summer to coincide with the Beijing Olympics and Euro 2008 and will run for an initial 10 weeks, the newspaper said.
Lynam, who was a special guest presenter at the SJA’s annual Sports Awards in London last December, has previous experience of hosting quiz programmes, having fronted C4’s Countdown for one series before stepping down because he disliked the commuting demands between his south coast home and the Leeds studios where the daily show was recorded.
Looking forward to Sport Mastermind, Lynam told The Sun: “Bearing in mind how many people are fascinated by sport, I think this programme will be a very popular complement to Mastermind. I have always been a Mastermind fan so am delighted to be involved.”
Before he moved to ITV, Lynam spent 30 years at the BBC, starting in local radio and working his way through to the iconic Sports Report. Lynam stood down at ITV in 2004 after five years as the commercial network’s sports frontman.
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