Who is Anne Robinson?
Sign up for our what's on newsletter for the perfect guide to making the most of your free time Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up now! Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice  Veteran broadcaster Anne Robinson is returning to the world of TV quizzes as she takes over as the host of Countdown. Dubbed 'the Queen of Mean', she is known for her sharp  sometimes controversial  tone, particularly in her previous job fronting The Weakest Link. Robinson, 76, began her career in the 1960s as a journalist, working on the Daily Mail and then The Sunday Times. Alcohol addiction led to her losing her job and first marriage with Mail colleague Charles Wilson, but she successfully went teetotal in 1978 and joined Alcoholics Anonymous, reports the Mirror. Over the following years, Robinson returned to journalism  writing for titles including the Mirror and the Liverpool Echo  married fellow journalist John Penrose and began to appear on TV, initially on Question Time, Breakfast Time and Points of View. She took over as presenter of consumer affairs show Watchdog in 1993 and then The Weakest Link from 2000. Her new jet-setting lifestyle sparked by a US spin-off of the show began to put pressure on her marriage, reports the Mirror, and she divorced in 2008, handing over 20 million to Penrose in the process. Robinson left The Weakest Link in 2012 after a run of more than 1,600 episodes. Then in 2015 she also stepped down as host of Watchdog having done two stints on the show (1993  2001; 2009 2015), switching her focus to other projects including Britain's Spending Secrets and Anne Robinson's Britain. She now takes over from Nick Hewer as the host of daytime quiz Countdown alongside Rachel Riley and Susie Dent. Her return to quizzing coincides with the BBC's reboot of The Weakest Link, which this time will be fronted by comedian Romesh Ranganathan. Countdown airs on Channel 4 every weekday at 2.10pm.