Who you won’t see on the BBC star salaries list

The BBC has disclosed the salaries of talent and executives earning above a certain threshold (currently £178,000) since 2017, when it was compelled by parliament to start including the information in its annual report.

But salaries of stars paid via production companies are not published, including those who receive payments through BBC Studios, the corporation’s own commercial arm.

It’s not difficult to guess, however, which names might be near the top of the salaries list if it was a complete picture.

As the host of both The Wheel and Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, Michael McIntyre is regularly seen on BBC One in primetime on Saturday nights throughout the year.

With that kind of real estate and his high profile, there is no way McIntyre would not be one of the corporation’s top earners. But he has never appeared on the list.

Similarly, Bradley Walsh is one of the UK’s best-loved presenters. Despite being well known for ITV’s The Chase, he fronts several high-profile shows for the BBC too, including Blankety Blank and Gladiators.

Other stars would likely appear on the list thanks to the sheer number of episodes they film. Alexander Armstrong, for example, presents hundreds of episodes of Pointless, which is broadcast every weekday on BBC One.

Even factoring in that some of these are repeats, it’s likely Armstrong will be on a healthy salary.

Richard Osman, who still appears alongside Armstrong on Pointless Celebrities as well as fronting his own show House of Games, would also probably appear if the rules were different, as would quiz show hosts Ross Kemp, Sandi Toksvig and Victoria Coren-Mitchell.

Romesh Ranganathan, meanwhile, hosts several programmes for the BBC, including documentaries and The Weakest Link, for which he is not listed. (We’ll find out next year if the salary for his new Radio 2 weekend show is made public.)

Other big BBC names not featured include Paddy McGuinness, who has fronted shows including Top Gear, Catchpoint and I Can See Your Voice, and Later host Jools Holland.

It’s almost certain Graham Norton would also appear, although his salary would be significantly less than it used to be, following his Radio 2 exit in 2020 and the recent reduction in the number of episodes of his BBC One chat show.