In 1977, Rippon hosted the Eurovision Song Contest at the Wembley Conference Centre in London. She was the first presenter of BBC television's "Top Gear", presenting the motoring programme from 1977 to 1979. Rippon appeared briefly on TV-am following its launch in 1983. After a much publicised exit from TV-am (with most of its other founder presenters), she worked as an Arts and Entertainments correspondent for WHDH-TV (then known as WNEV) in Boston, Massachusetts for a brief period.