Legendary sports broadcaster Steve Rider has revealed his plans to “sidle away” from TV this summer, marking the end of an illustrious career that spanned nearly 50 years on screen.
The 74 year-old is perhaps most recognised for hosting the iconic BBC sports show Grandstand, where he covered a wide range of sports including rugby, golf, rowing and motorsports. He also presented Sportsnight and Sports Personality of the Year, and was the anchor for the corporation’s coverage of every Olympic Games between 1988 and 2004.
However, in 2005, Rider left the BBC and made a return to ITV, where he had initially got his big break 25 years prior. Since then, he has remained with the broadcaster, presenting coverage of Formula One and World Cups in both rugby and football, as well as hosting the British Touring Car Championship for the past 16 years.
It is in this role that he will conclude his 48-year broadcasting career this summer. The legendary presenter anticipates a low-key exit when his final job in front of the camera comes around in June.
“I’ll just sidle away,'” Rider – who turns 75 this month – told the Daily Mail. “The biggest emotion as you get into the last two minutes of something like that is, ‘For God’s sake, don’t c**k it up,’ because you’d be thinking about that for the next 20 years!”
“I’ve probably outstayed my welcome. I’ve been hugely lucky with the places that the career has taken me. But it’s close to 50 years now, so the cracks are showing!”
Rider’s exit from our screens comes a year and a half after he disclosed his diagnosis of prostate cancer. The host shared the news on BBC Breakfast, stating that he had been “incredibly lucky” as the disease was detected early and he immediately underwent “significant” surgery to stop it from spreading.
He decided to get tested after one of his mates was diagnosed with the same cancer following a medical examination, and his wife encouraged him to have further tests when his initial check-up results came back “a little high”.
“I was cutting it a bit fine,” Rider admitted. “They took one look and said, ‘We’re going to operate in two weeks’. No messing around. We did Brands Hatch for ITV on the Sunday and I had the operation on the Thursday, so it slotted into the schedule quite nicely!’
“It was one operation, whip it all out, off you go and enjoy the rest of your life, second chance. But I was one of the lucky ones,” he added, urging people to get checked for the disease.
“Get yourself tested because once this wretched thing develops, as we’ve been seeing from Chris Hoy and Eddie Jordan, it just gallops away and there’s no control. The chance you have is early testing.”
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