POINTLESS star Richard Osman has revealed the toll the quiz show took on him after his shock exit.
Last month the telly favourite, 51, walked away from the long-running BBC One series having filmed more than 1,300 episodes and
nearly 30 series.
Speaking to Phillip Schofield and Rochelle Humes on This Morning, Richard took a swipe at the show saying it ‘took a lot out of him’.
The TV star said he wanted to focus on his hugely successful writing career – which has seen him become a best-selling author.
“It takes a lot out of you,” Richard said on Wednesday.
“My thing has been people only play Pointless once or twice, and I want to give them a good time and have it be exciting for everyone.
Read More on Richard Osman
“So, I’ve always given 100% to Pointless, and I was getting to the stage where I don’t have time to give 100% to everything.”
He added: “I had done 12 years of it, so if one thing could go, because I still love House of Games, and I love doing the writing.
“It was just the one thing where I was like, you know what let someone else have a go at this.”
Richard has become a runaway success in the literary world having
released his first novel The Thursday Murder Club in 2020, and its sequel The Man Who Died Twice in 2021.
The first book is the third best-selling hardback of all-time in the UK while the follow-up is the sixth best-selling.
The film rights have already been bought by Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg.
His agent Juliet Mushens said: “When Richard told me he had written a
novel I knew that it would be warm and witty. However, I wasn’t quite
prepared for how brilliantly the Thursday Murder Club would come to
life.”
The series has since sold nearly five million copies in total.
Richard’s admission comes as he “leaked” Bradley Walsh’s huge six-figure salary on social media.
He mentioned the TV presenter’s paycheck in a tweet about Manchester City’s new signing Erling Haaland.
Payments to the agents and a signing-on fee for the Norwegian player, 21, are believed to come to around £34m, meaning he is likely to be on a similar deal to Kevin De Bruyne, who is thought to bank around £375,000 a week.
The news has got football fans talking, including Richard, who took to Twitter to share his opinion.
However, he couldn’t help but mention the host of his former rival show in the tweet.
Richard said: “£375,000 a week. Wow. Haaland is on, what we call in the business ‘Bradley Walsh money’.”
ITV’s The Chase and BBC’s Pointless have been rival shows since they first hit our screens in 2009.
Richard’s post certainly ruffled a few feathers as one Bradley’s co-stars replied.
Mark Labbett AKA The Beast jokingly said: “If you are trying to stir things up in Chase land, you have succeeded :).”
Although it is not known how much The Chase stars earn, it is safe to say that they receive a hefty amount of cash for their appearance on the ITV show.
Read More on The Celeb Report
Last year the Mail reported that Bradley is one of the highest earners on daytime TV.
His estimated net worth is £20m and he is said to have £12.5m worth of assets.
