Kelly Cates makes thoughts clear on Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman as she opens up on BBC job

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Kelly Cates insisted she hadn't read any reaction to her Match of the Day appointment as she revealed her true thoughts on co-hosts Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman. Last season was the first of a new presenter line-up, with Cates, Logan and Chapman sharing hosting duties after long-running anchor Gary Lineker stepped down.

The trio, who also led the BBC's World Cup coverage, host Match of the Day on a rotation basis, with Cates and Chapman continuing to work for Sky Sports and Logan and Chapman fronting the Sports Agents podcast together.

Cates, the daughter of Liverpool icon Kenny Dalglish, was honoured to take on the prestigious role, especially alongside fellow respected broadcasters Logan and Chapman. She told The Romesh Ranganathan Show: "They [the BBC] just asked me. There was no big manoeuvring. Gary was leaving, which accelerated it slightly, and the process came a bit quicker.

"They said, 'Do you want to come and do it, we're looking at a team of three.' I was like, 'Who are the other two?'

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"They said it was Mark and Gabby and I said, 'That's amazing.' It's Match of the Day, so it sells itself. Also, the fact it's those two…Normally, I take the p*** out of the people I work with and it's OK.

"But it's Mark and Gabby, and they're amazing. Being on a team with them is genuinely really exciting. I feel like I'm in a great little group."

The trio's appointment has generally gone down with viewers, not that Cates would know, as she shields herself from coverage, whether it is positive or negative. She added: "I didn't read it, and that's not hard to do.

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"It's not hard to avoid the coverage. It's hard to stop people sending you the coverage but I just tell them I don't want them to send it to me, even nice stuff. I still really have no idea what people thought about it or think about it. I just do my job."

The new presenting line-up has coincided with a fall in Match of the Day's viewership. However, that is believed to be due to a change in viewing habits, with digital highlights clips of each Premier League match now available at 8pm on Saturdays.

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Average weekly views for the highlights across the iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and the app stood at 1.52million between August and December 2025. That has more than offset the drop-off in those viewing the traditional programme.

Between August and December 2024, the average weekly viewing figures across all devices – both TV and iPlayer and the Saturday and Sunday shows – was 7.65m, but were down to 6.88m across the same period last year, a drop of around 770,000.