The BBC should not have spent £18 million hiring Jonathan Ross and should expect to lose public support if it rewards its top presenters with astronomical pay packets, Greg Dyke, the former Director-General of the corporation, says today.

As the broadcasting blackout of Ross was completed by the announcement that he would not present next month’s British Comedy Awards, on ITV, Mr Dyke said that the BBC should have let the star join a commercial broadcaster when his contract was up for negotiation in 2006 rather than striking the deal that made him the best-paid presenter in Britain.

On Thursday the BBC suspended Ross for 12 weeks for his part in the sexually explicit calls made to Andrew Sachs, the 78-year-old actor, that were subsequently aired on Radio 2, and docked his salary by nearly £1.5 million. Russell Brand, his partner in crime, resigned on Wednesday.

As the BBC was ordered by its governing body to impose strict controls on any presenter deemed at high risk of offending the public, ITV said that it had mutually agreed with Ross that he would not present the comedy awards, on December 6, an event he has hosted for the past 17 years.

A spokesman for Ross said: “It’s a show he very much enjoys being part of but would not want his participation in this year’s event to take away from the awards themselves or the many talented winners of the awards.”

Mr Dyke, who held the BBC post before Mark Thompson, the current Director-General, resigned in 2004 after the Hutton report and the row caused by claims made by the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan that the Government had “sexed up” a report on Iraq.

Until today he had refused to comment on the phone calls row, but Mr Dyke writes that Ross had discovered that “what goes around comes around”, after previously bragging that his salary meant that he was worth “a thousand BBC journalists”.

Mr Thompson met senior executives yesterday as part of a review of all radio programmes for taste and decency, ordered by the BBC Trust. Sir Michael Lyons, the Chairman of the BBC Trust, said that he was dismayed by the phone calls.

It is understood that the review will focus on making sure that more senior producers are in place on shows fronted by controversial DJs to ensure that the correct decisions are taken on what is suitable for airing. The trustees want to see staff such as Nic Philps, the 25-year-old producer of The Russell Brand Show, given greater guidance and supervision.

Brand was criticised by Paul Gambaccini, the veteran broadcaster, who said that he had protested to Lesley Douglas, then Controller of Radio 2, about her decision to hire the presenter. Describing him as a time bomb, Gambaccini said: “His talent, though it is appealing to millions of people, was not appropriate for this network.”

Gambaccini said that Brand was Ms Douglas’s “pet” and that she was a “great warrior” who had “a commitment to Russell which was almost obsessive”. He added: “Lesley Douglas was brought low by Russell Brand.” Ms Douglas resigned from her job on Thursday.

Brand flew to America yesterday to give a series of stand-up comedy performances and attempt to build on a burgeoning Hollywood career.

In an e-mail to all BBC staff, Mr Thompson said that the corporation had no choice but to suspend Ross. He said: “The suspension of Jonathan Ross was the right, but proportionate, thing to do given his involvement in this sorry affair. He has, in effect, suffered a significant financial penalty.”

It is unclear to what extent Ross will lose out by his suspension. The BBC would not clarify whether it was paying his company, Hot Sauce, which makes his Friday night show, for lost production work. Some BBC staff are angry about the heavy coverage of the row by the corporation’s own news outlets, which they say increased pressure on itself. However, Peter Horrocks, head of television news, e-mailed journalists insisting that its coverage had been well handled.

Protests in support of the presenters are likely today after more than 15,000 people signed up to a group on the social networking website Facebook. The group, Support Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, plans to demonstrate outside the offices of both the BBC and the Daily Mail.

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