The Rest Is: the rise of Gary Lineker's podcast empire

Gary Lineker's company Goalhanger has launched the latest in its "The Rest Is…" series of hit podcasts – "The Rest Is Entertainment", hosted by TV star and author Richard Osman and Guardian columnist Marina Hyde.

The latest addition to the former England footballer's growing stable of podcasts bills itself as an exploration of "showbiz, gossip, music [and] celebrity scandal" and comes following a period of explosive growth for the company. 

The show "has gone for a more tabloid approach" than some of the other shows produced by Lineker's Goalhanger Podcasts, said Jo Ellison in the Financial Times, and is "sweeping up all the random popularist cultural markers that the other Rest Is’s don't". 

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The background

Goalhanger Podcasts has swiftly become an immensely lucrative side business for the football player turned TV presenter, said The Telegraph. 

Goalhanger Films was formed in 2014 to make sporting documentaries, but set up a podcast division last year. This has gone on to produce some of the UK's most popular shows, including "The Rest Is Politics", hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, and "The Rest Is History", starring Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. Lineker himself presents another show, "The Rest Is Football", exchanging banter with fellow ex-players Alan Shearer and Micah Richards.

Goalhanger now claims to be the UK's largest independent podcast group, with 17.5 million downloads each month. 

In the wake of what Goalhanger called a period of "incredible growth", the company signed a deal with the global entertainment agency WME, said The Telegraph, and announced plans to increase its output with more new shows and hosts.

"We don't really know what the boundaries are in terms of growth," Lineker told The New Statesman in an interview in October 2022. "But it's a very, very good business."

The latest

As well as offering a new direction for its presenters who, like Osman and Hyde, are established in their own fields but often new to podcasting, Goalhanger is also an "extremely lucrative platform", said the FT's Ellison, offering "life-changing salaries and second-career fame". 

Presenters on the main shows are reportedly not paid a wage as such, but instead share two-thirds of all revenue generated, while Goalhanger keeps the remaining third.

The company does not disclose precise figures, but it is reportedly very rewarding. Rory Stewart has called it "Championship footballer money", which various news outlets have interpreted as translating to many thousands of pounds per week.

Given the explosive growth of his production company, Lineker has even suggested that while he still has several years left on his BBC contract he might consider quitting to focus on podcasting. 

"Maybe," he told The New Statesman. "Who knows? Life's thrown many things at me. And I'm 61."

The reaction

Reviewing the first episode of "The Rest Is Entertainment", The Guardian's Miranda Sawyer said the show was "as you might hope, extremely entertaining". The hosts "don't compete with each other, or try too hard to be chummy. In short, they're great casting and the episode flew past."

Congeniality may be Goalhanger's "biggest insight", said the FT's John Gapper. While Lineker "does not shy from controversy" himself, his production house has realised that many listeners "enjoy calm and good humour". 

According to Tony Pastor, co-founder of Goalhanger, the amiable banter between "The Rest Is History" hosts Holland and Sandbrook helped set the tone for the brand: "We don't have people shouting at each other from different positions," Pastor said. "We always try to maintain a civility of tone: our phrase is, 'We disagree agreeably.'"

The formula has now brought about a "hat-trick of career triumphs" for Lineker, said The Standard. From "feared striker and captain of the England football team" to one of the country's "most admired sports presenters", now Lineker is "fast making his name as a media mogul", the newspaper said, as his growing stable of podcasts "dominate the charts".