A Daily Mail investigation has revealed the television salaries of major British broadcasting stars at the BBC and ITV, showing that former footballer Wayne Rooney earns £8,000 for every episode of Match of the Day he appears on in Salford.
The £8,000 fee for the former striker works out at more than £107 per minute on air during a standard 75-minute highlights broadcast. The payment leaves his main co-hosts earning a third of his per-episode rate, as Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman each receive £3,000 per show, equivalent to £40 per minute live.
Rooney, 40, signed a lucrative contract with the BBC last year to move from football management into television punditry. The former England captain and father of four left third-tier club Plymouth Argyle by mutual consent on New Year's Eve in 2024. He previously played as a striker for Manchester United, where he earned more than £200,000 per week. Rooney also appeared regularly during coverage of the FIFA World Cup tournament this summer, attracting viewer praise for his dry wit.
"Wayne is on a lot of money, it's quite eye-watering really, but people want to hear what he has to say about football," an insider said. "Everyone loves Wayne, but once this comes out there might be some who feel very hard done by."
The insider added: "When it comes to football, the BBC believe that the viewers want to hear his expertise. Some people think that he is grossly overpaid but the audience love him."
Logan, a mother of two, anchors Match of the Day alongside Chapman and Kelly Cates. BBC Corporation bosses appointed the three-person presenting team after former presenter Gary Lineker departed the show following an impartiality row. Chapman, 52, known to viewers as "Chappers", earned £37 per minute for presenting last Saturday evening's broadcast covering the opening weekend of the 2026 to 2027 Premier League season.
"You have to wonder if they will be absolutely fuming to know what Wayne earns," a television insider said. "But actually, even they have to realise that he has a specialism and he's running all the way to the bank with it."
BBC daytime and evening presenter rates
Beyond sports broadcasting, presenter Roman Kemp earns £2,000 for each 30-minute episode he anchors on the green sofa of The One Show. Broadcast live on weekday evenings, the BBC programme regularly attracts an audience of about 3 million viewers. Kemp's fee works out at £66 per minute on air. Presenting up to three episodes per week, his monthly income from the show can reach £24,000.
Kemp, 33, is a radio presenter and DJ. He is the son of 64-year-old actor Martin Kemp. He joined The One Show in 2022 alongside presenter Alex Jones following the departure of former Blue Peter presenter Matt Baker. Although some licence-fee payers have branded the magazine show "nuts" for its eclectic mix of segments, Kemp defended the broadcast in 2023.
"When Alex and I present the show it feels like anything can happen," Kemp said in 2023. "It gets a bit wild with the guests, and it just descends into carnage." He added: "Controlled carnage."
"Roman hosts three shows per week sometimes, so that can amount to £24,000 per month," a source familiar with The One Show said. "It's a pretty good salary for him really, he must be thrilled. But it will be interesting to know what the licence-fee payers make of that."
ITV daytime show host earnings
Commercial network ITV also pays substantial appearance fees to its daytime television presenters. Stand-in host Craig Doyle earns £3,000 for each 150-minute episode of This Morning he presents, which equals £20 per minute on air.
Doyle, a television presenter from Ireland, lives in County Wicklow with his wife Doon and their four children. His career began in the mid-1990s presenting the children's show Disney Club before he joined BBC Sport in the early 2000s to anchor major sporting broadcasts. He joined This Morning in 2021 when the programme was fronted by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. Producer Martin Frizell later made Doyle a regular relief presenter after he became popular with viewers.
Doyle provided steady hosting following the scandal that threatened the show's future when Schofield resigned after admitting to an "unwise but not illegal" affair with a younger colleague.
"Craig loves doing This Morning," a source said. "ITV know that the women love him, so he's worth every penny of his £3,000 pay cheque."
Co-star Rylan Clark receives £5,000 per episode for hosting This Morning, earning £33 per minute while live on air. Clark, 37, gained national recognition as a contestant on the tenth series of singing competition The X Factor in 2012. He joined This Morning as a guest entertainment reporter reporting on behind-the-scenes gossip from the show. After presenting reality show Big Brother, he took on broader relief presenting duties, once stepping in alongside Schofield at short notice when Willoughby was ill.
"He is so in demand and he knows the viewers love him," a source said.
Loose Women panellists and ITV studio cuts
Elsewhere on ITV, main panellists on the 60-minute daytime talk show Loose Women receive approximately £1,000 per episode, equivalent to just over £16 per minute. Regular panellists receiving this rate include Kaye Adams, Coleen Nolan, Jane Moore, Janet Street-Porter, and former panellists Denise Welch and Sherrie Hewson. Main anchors Christine Lampard and Ruth Langsford receive higher fees, while former panellist Stacey Solomon previously commanded a larger fee due to her popularity.
"It seems a lot but is it really?" a source said. "The problem is that there are four of them and that adds up for ITV, who have had to make huge cuts to their programmes."
The source added: "The fact that some earn more than others has made for a sometimes-unpleasant atmosphere behind the scenes, because it's a real case of survival of the fittest."
The earnings of Loose Women panellists dropped after ITV reduced the annual broadcast schedule from 52 weeks to 30 weeks per year across its rotating roster of roughly 20 presenters. The show also lost its live audience and was required to share a studio set with This Morning, leaving production staff with a three-minute commercial break to reset the set. The wider daytime restructuring resulted in more than 200 staff redundancies, with remaining production operations moved from Television Centre in West London to Covent Garden in central London.
Presenter pay per episode summary
- Wayne Rooney: £8,000 per episode (£107 per minute)
- Rylan Clark: £5,000 per episode (£33 per minute)
- Craig Doyle: £3,000 per episode (£20 per minute)
- Gabby Logan: £3,000 per episode (£40 per minute)
- Mark Chapman: £3,000 per episode (£40 per minute)
- Roman Kemp: £2,000 per episode (£66 per minute)
- Loose Women panellists: £1,000 per episode (£16 per minute)
