Lineker is BBC’s biggest waste of cash, say viewers

(But that’s only because Chris Evans has left)

MATCH Of The Day host Gary Lineker and a host of other highly paid BBC stars are terrible value for money according to viewers, a new survey reveals.

The BBC released its annual list of the highest-paid stars last week, with Lineker top, earning a staggering £1.75million a year. The vast salaries have sparked fury, especially after the BBC’s decision to end free licences for the over-75s.

Now members of the public have been asked about the fat-cat stars, and in the case of every presenter bar one, more respondents said they were a rip-off rather than good value. Polling organisation OnePoll asked 1,930 UK adults if they thought the stars were either good, reasonable, poor value or a rip-off.

The stars were then given a score by taking poor value ratings away from good value ratings.

Chris Evans, 53, who left his role as host of Radio 2’s Breakfast Show, for which he was paid £1.25million a year, had the worst value-for-money rating, with minus 58.

Next worst value for money is Lineker, 58, worth an estimated £30 million, who received a score of minus 54. Radio host Vanessa Feltz, 57, one of the Corporation’s three best-paid women with a salary of between £355,000 and £359,999, got a minus 49 rating, while Strictly host Claudia Winkleman, 47, the top-earning woman at the BBC with a salary of between £370,000 and £374,999, scored minus 28.

Lineker’s Match Of The Day costar Alan Shearer, 48 – who earns £440,000 – was fourth with a negative score of 38.

Of the highest paid stars, Question Time host Fiona Bruce, 55, who earns between £255,000 and £259,999, fared the best of a bad bunch with a minus eight rating.

The only star to get a positive rating was Sir David Attenborough, 93. Although he wasn’t named on the BBC’s list of high earners because he is paid through a production company for his Blue Planet series, he received a plus 52 rating.

Just 34 per cent of Britons quizzed thought that overall the BBC was good or very good value for money.