Gary Lineker will be back instantly on Saturday night’s TV after signing a new deal with ITV. Just three months after his early exit from the BBC, the 64-year-old is set to hold a game show called The Box.
The program will have 12 celebrities in boxes and present dangerous challenges. Lineker’s involvement reportedly infuriated the BBC boss, following an anti-Semitic line that undermines his final weeks with the company. He was scheduled to step down from his role as Match of the Day presenter at the end of the 2024/25 season, but was scheduled to continue his Beeb until the 2026 World Cup.
According to the Sun, ITV has been targeting line cars for quite some time. Before becoming a free agent, the former England striker was the BBC’s top operator for the past eight years, earning £1.35 million a year before the explosive exit.
The source said, “ITV is really excited about it and believes they have finally found a valuable successor for Saturday night takeout. They had to sniff Gary for a long time and find the right format for him.”
“They are sure they have found it now, and the BBC’s losses are their profits. The boxes are massive in Norway, and the rights were soon sold to Denmark and now the UK.”
The ITV boss is said to have been confirmed to schedule the show, but he hopes to have it filmed in the fall. The series reportedly aired early spring 2026, with the program being ready for the Saturday night slot.
Lineker announced the matches for the day from 1999 to 2025. This is the longest tenure of a show presenter. He also regularly brought BBC coverage of major international tournaments to the forefront and worked with BT Sport before being taken over by TNT.
He initially announced that he had resigned from the channel after being accused of sharing anti-Semitic posts on Instagram. However, he has since claimed that the boss “wanted me to leave” and that the decision was not mutual.
