Dermot Murnaghan has reportedly been axed from 'Eggheads'.

Dermot Murnaghan

Dermot Murnaghan

The 59-year-old presenter has fronted the long-running quiz show since it first hit television screens in 2003 but it seems he's been silently dropped and replaced with Jeremy Vine permanently after they agreed to split the hosting duties in 2008.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "For years, Dermot was a big part of 'Eggheads' then suddenly he just disappeared. It took a while for it to become obvious because the hosting job was split between Dermot and Jeremy. But it seems odd for it to have happened so quietly. It's like they just pretended he had never been there."

Bosses reportedly decided that Jeremy - who works on 'Crimewatch', 'Panorama', and 'Points of View' - was more of a "BBC face" due to his other work commitments.

However, Dermot's agent is adamant he wasn't dropped from the show, which sees a group of challengers go up against five masterminds in a series of different rounds in the hope of making it to the general knowledge final and be in with a shot of nabbing the cash prize, but was forced to leave because of his conflicting work schedule.

Dermot's representative said: "He had too much work to cram in."

Meanwhile, it looks like Jeremy may not be around for long either as he's becoming more popular with producers and may see his schedule ramp up a notch, too.