'Not one small part of this has been left to chance': Insiders reveal ambitious Amol Rajan's masterplan to become a YouTube megastar through a stint on Traitors and getting fans to pay £999 to join his new club!

The idea, it seems, was that this would be Amol Rajan’s big moment. Standing in the middle of London’s Covent Garden, dressed casually in a short-sleeved shirt, the former host of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme recorded a video announcing his latest venture after leaving the flagship news show earlier this month.

Staring intently at the camera, Rajan, 43, made no bones about his talent. He had interviewed ‘countless icons’ during his career he said – sounding more like an Apprentice candidate pitching to Lord Sugar – and knew ‘what it takes to succeed, not just in today’s world but in tomorrow’s’.

He told viewers he wanted to ‘share those lessons with you’, inviting them to subscribe to his new website, The Amol Rajan Connection, and its YouTube channel.

Signing up, by the way, will cost fans up to £999 for a ‘top tier’ lifetime membership – a sign not just of Rajan’s ambitious financial goals, but his expectation that the project will endure long enough to justify the price tag.

Clearly hoping to appeal to an audience younger than the Today tribe, he put the video on TikTok. Unfortunately, the two-and-a-half-minute clip was a flop, earning 2,500 likes – while young ‘newsfluencers’ such as Dylan Page who discuss current affairs on TikTok regularly get tens of millions.

One viewer declared the heavily edited video ‘sensationalist’, while others admitted they had ‘no idea’ what he was promoting. Its fate was sealed when one commented: ‘This is cringe’ – the ultimate Gen Z put-down. A more recent TikTok fared even worse, with just 43 likes. The clip, set in a woodland, was titled: ‘Where on earth has Amol gone?’ Poking his head up from some bushes, the broadcaster, worth £3.7million, shouted: ‘I’m leaving BBC News guys. I’m headed for the great digital Narnia, come on in, it’s great.’ Like CS Lewis’s characters, Rajan is finding life beyond the wardrobe frosty.

But he has a plan.

Next month, he will appear on the new series of Celebrity Traitors – part of an all-star cast of actors, comedians and TV favourites. The show has become one of the biggest events in the television year, with an enviable audience of 14million – which, for him, is the PR equivalent of being fired out of a cannon. While the celebrity stratosphere might not quite beckon, sources familiar with the project say he plans to ‘ride the show’s wave’ – boosting his popularity to increase the profile of his YouTube show.

‘Not one small part of this has been left to chance,’ says the source. ‘There is no way the YouTube show would have the kind of profile it will have without Traitors.

‘Amol is as tactical as they come. It’s not just fun and games, he’s there for exposure.’ But Traitors is, of course, a reputational gamble. Despite being last year’s winner, Alan Carr’s PR team would have been loosening their collars after he ‘murdered’ his supposed best friend, singer Paloma Faith. Nor did Stephen Fry and historian David Olusoga cover themselves in glory, as the two apparent brainboxes failed to spot the three Traitors right under their noses and sprayed many accusations at their fellow ‘Faithfuls’. But they did go far, something that is not guaranteed for Rajan, who could duck out in the first few episodes. If he did (the show was recorded in spring), his recent social media antics suggest he won’t be shy in trying to style himself out of such ignominy.

Whatever the case, Rajan – whose career includes print (he formerly edited The Independent newspaper), broadcast and now online – is serious about his latest transition.

An industry source said: ‘He’s not playing around; Amol’s assembled an army of top media strategists to break new ground in the media landscape and create an empire.’ They added: ‘Think Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger – then add some.’ Indeed, it is from that podcast network that Rajan has brought commercial growth expert Conrad Withey, who stepped down in July as chief commercial officer at Goalhanger. Announcing his participation in the project, Withey wrote on LinkedIn that Rajan was launching ‘a movement’.

‘From day one, Amol is building a direct, owned relationship with his audience. A membership. A place people choose to belong to, and pay to be part of,’ he gushed.

That cash is already rolling in, Rajan claims. There are various membership tiers named, improbably, after cocktails. The most expensive is the Pina Colada. Those willing to part with £999 not only get the privilege of meeting Rajan at every live event he hosts but get to be named in the ‘Patrons and Partners’ section of his website.

On X last week, Rajan wrote: ‘Early days and all that but we’ve had about eight times as many people sign up as we forecast, including for the paid tiers.’ He added that there was ‘plenty of demand’ for the cheaper options.

He isn’t leaving success to chance. Former YouTube and TikTok exec Richard Waterworth is Rajan’s strategy consultant alongside Bryony Hopkins, a former executive at Steven Bartlett’s media company FlightStory. Bartlett, of course, turned his 2017 Diary Of A CEO podcast into a hundred-million-pound juggernaut.

Competition for YouTube eyeballs is intense – those who successfully made the jump from TV include Gordon Ramsay (22 million subscribers) and Jamie Oliver (6 million), while new beginner Holly Willoughby (26,000) is attracting top guests such as Stanley Tucci and comedian Katherine Ryan. But Rajan will hope there is a market for his twice-weekly show, which will feature ‘the most interesting, influential, smart and dynamic people on the planet’.

Last week, he released his first newsletter, which discussed why mobile phones are making younger generations ‘less happy than they deserve’, before flogging tickets to his UK tour, rather optimistically scheduled for March next year. ‘He knows the future isn’t with the BBC,’ an insider says. Though they point out that ‘it hasn’t stopped him using the BBC’s hit show Celebrity Traitors to launch his own venture to get to where the money really is’.

So, can this media chameleon shake off his ‘cringe’ tag and find the big bucks?