Gary Lineker is set to make his TV comeback three months after his dramatic BBC exit in May.
The former England striker was forced to step back from his role at the helm of Match of the Day after sharing a video on Instagram which sparked accusations of antisemitism.
Lineker shared a pro-Palestinian video on his Instagram account depicting a rat emoji – a commonly-used antisemitic trope.
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The 64-year-old then deleted the post and issued an apology, but decided to leave his £1.35million-a-year role after he said he was told by BBC executives that it was a “quit or be quitted” scenario.
However, Lineker is set to return to screens presenting a new ITV Saturday night show.
He will be fronting a brand new programmed called The Box, based on a Norwegian show which sees a group of a dozen celebrities complete challenging tasks while trapped inside a box.
ITV bosses are said to be hopeful that the new show will fill the void left by Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, which was hooked from programming in 2024.
After The Box’s popularity with audiences in Norway, the show’s rights were quickly sold in Denmark and Norway, a source informed The Sun.
The source said: “ITV are really excited about it – and believe they have finally found a worthy successor to Saturday Night Takeaway.
“They have long been sniffing around Gary and just needed to find the right format for him.
“They’re confident they’ve found that now, and the BBC’s loss is their gain.”
The show has been described as a cross between SAS: Who Dares Wins and I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
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Lineker’s time at the BBC was not short of controversy – particularly in recent years.
Two years ago, Lineker compared the then-Conservative Government’s migration policy to that of Nazi Germany on social media, clashing with impartiality guidelines enshrined in the BBC’s Charter.
He was subsequently suspended, which prompted colleagues Alan Shearer and Ian Wright to step back from their roles on Match of the Day.
Following talks with BBC director-general Tim Davie, Lineker was reinstated to his position.
The father-of-three had reportedly been planning to leave Match of the Day at the end of the 2025/26 Premier League season and step down from broadcasting altogether after the World Cup next year.
The termination of his lucrative contract at the public broadcaster included the BBC’s licensing deal for his podcasts The Rest is Football and The Rest is History.
Lineker’s new The Box show has been a sensation in Scandinavia, with more than a million people tuning in to the programme – a fifth of the county’s population.
It is rumoured that filming for the show will commence in autumn, with the show’s premiere set to hit the screens in the early springtime.