Will Best has described being suddenly axed from TV as a “weird and scary” shock, a reminder that even visible careers can vanish without warning. The Big Brother presenter, who now fronts the revived reality show alongside AJ Odudu, said the experience came early in his career and changed how he thought about work security. For Best, the lesson was not just about losing a contract; it was about how quickly momentum in television can shift, even when things appear to be going well.
Why Will Best’s TV exit still matters
The story matters because it exposes a reality often hidden behind polished broadcast success: instability. Best said he was working on T4’s The Crush after taking over from Rick Edwards when a two-week period in one summer turned everything around. First came news that T4 was going, while he was told The Crush and Freshly Squeezed would continue. Then, days later, the message changed again. The Crush was gone, though Freshly Squeezed was still staying on. That sequence, in Best’s telling, created the sudden uncertainty that he called “weird, scary time”.
In practical terms, the episode shows how fragile television roles can be, especially for presenters whose careers are tied to fast-moving programming decisions. Best’s account does not suggest a personal failure; instead, it highlights the structural vulnerability of on-screen jobs when schedules, formats, and channel priorities change with little notice. For someone trying to build a long-term career, that kind of volatility can reshape priorities quickly.
The career lesson behind the Will Best story
Best’s reflections also explain why he chose to work outside television. He said the lack of security in the industry pushed him toward business, including a drinks company he set up with his friend Henry Farnham in 2017. The company, Bloody Drinks, makes canned versions of the Bloody Mary cocktail and is stocked in numerous supermarkets across the UK. In Best’s view, having “other pies” to put his energy into was a deliberate response to the insecurity he had already experienced.
That detail gives the story a wider editorial angle: the most valuable part of a TV career may not be fame itself, but the leverage it creates to build something more durable. Best has not framed business as an escape from broadcasting, but as a hedge against its unpredictability. In that sense, the “weird and scary” moment did more than end a contract; it appears to have helped define a career strategy.
Will Best, Big Brother and the return of a familiar risk
Best’s current profile is tied to Big Brother, which he has hosted with AJ Odudu since the reality show was revived by ITV in 2023. The programme has its own history of reinvention, having first run on Channel 4 from 2000 until 2010 and then moving to Channel 5 until 2018. Since the revival, the civilian version has produced winners including Jordan Sangha, Ali Bromley and Richard Storry.
That backdrop matters because it mirrors the uncertainty Best described from his earlier career. Big Brother itself has been shaped by change, and its return has depended on the same kind of calculation that drives television commissioning more broadly: what still pulls an audience, and what can be sustained. The show has also had a celebrity spin-off alongside it, though that version and its Late & Live companion were later said to have been “rested” so the broadcaster could focus on the main series.
What the interview reveals about television careers
Best’s account, shared in conversation with Joel Dommett and Ben Shephard, offers a rare look at the emotional side of a presenting job. The moment he described was not a dramatic public firing, but a gradual collapse of certainty over a matter of days. That distinction matters, because it shows how the business can unsettle people without spectacle.
It also underlines why presenters often build parallel careers. For Best, the move into drinks was not just entrepreneurial ambition; it was a direct answer to the insecurity he had already lived through. As Big Brother continues to evolve, his story serves as a reminder that the people fronting major formats are often thinking far beyond the screen. And if television can change so quickly, what other safety nets will presenters decide they need next?
