Friday night without Jonathan Ross

So, Jonathan Ross has vacated his £18-million seat at the BBC on the probable grounds that middle England wasn't happy with his salary and his perceived light punishment for the disastrous Andrew Sachs radio prank. The truth is probably more complicated, and his replacements are already being touted.

Mr Ross claims he wants to be a house husband, but the rise of his partner-in-crime Russell Brand as a film actor and fiancé to Katy Perry (pop strumpet du jour) probably means he'll have other irons in the fire. So, what might be the options? His family tree may hold some clues:

• Personal biography: Jonathan Ross, film critic, television and radio presenter
• Married to: Jane Goldman, screenwriter (e.g. Stardust), author, bra model and television presenter (e.g. Jane Goldman Investigates);
• Son of: Martha Ross, actress and radio presenter;
• Brother of: Paul Ross, journalist, and television and radio presenter;
• Brother of: Miles Ross, producer, director, actor and writer
• Brother of: Lisa Ross, works in 'the media';
• Brother of: Simon Ross, television producer, Cactus TV [joint MD] (e.g. Richard & Judy, Saturday Kitchen, The TV Book Club)
• Brother-in-law of: Amanda Ross: ditto Simon, especially the book club, voted most influential person in UK book publishing in 2006.

This is a built-in family network, even if Mr Ross has no real need of nepotism due to his spell of 20-plus years in front of a microphone.

My guess? A few months of purdah followed by either a big contract with Sky TV as film critic/presenter (i.e. big media fish slightly on the way down, replacing alumnus Barry Norman) or presenting big documentary and chat-show specials on ITV (i.e. following the resurrection route recently trodden by Piers Morgan) or devising some new panel quiz format that takes terrestrial TV by storm (i.e. following his previous comebacks on They Think It's All Over and Shooting Stars).

I don't see him having the patience or the humility to write books/screenplays and stay off the air for very long. And, as the Ross family have always lived in the Leyton area, I can't see him moving permanently from his London roots, say to Hollywood, for the sake of his wife's screenwriting career.

But whatever he does next it will be for less than £6 million a year, a figure that represents a South Sea bubble high point for any television presenter: it will not be exceeded in real terms for many years -- if ever. Viewer ratings will not, in the end, trump talent gold-rush economics.