The former chief political correspondent left the broadcaster in 2022 to set up rival programme. Jon Sopel has opened up about his success after leaving the BBC and revealed whether he thinks his ex-colleagues “hate” him. The former chief political correspondent, 65, who joined the broadcaster at the age of 24, quit the BBC with Emily Maitlis in 2022 and launched The News Agents podcast with Lewis Goodall the same year.
![[Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis left the BBC last year to join media group Global]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2022/09/02/22/1287cde7a1deaffb81103db497a43a3bY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNjYyMjM3MTM5-2.65467705.jpg)
Since its launch, The News Agents has established itself as one of the UK’s most popular daily news podcasts, celebrating 100 million downloads last July. “But since we’ve been doing News Agents, we’ve found that it really resonates. We’ve just reached 100 million downloads — about 200,000 listeners per show.”.
![[Sopel was previously chief political correspondent for the BBC]](https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/brightcove/5300979757001.jpg)
He claimed: “So, broadly speaking, we’re now beating anything the BBC has to offer.”. According to the most recent figures, Newsnight - formerly fronted by Maitlis - has a viewership of just under 300,000, with budget cuts prompting Mark Urban to also leave the programme last April.
Addressing whether his former colleagues “hate” him for moving on, Sopel said: “Look, I have a lot of friends at the BBC, but they do give you a different sendoff if you are being made redundant or retiring compared with what you get if you launch a competitive programme.”.
