George Entwistle's departure -- after just two months in the job -- plunges

BBC into fresh crisis after it was engulfed by a scandal surrounding Jimmy

Savile, the late BBC star now alleged to has been a prolific sex offender.

"The wholly exceptional events of the past few weeks have led me to conclude that the BBC should appoint a new leader," Entwistle said in a televised statement outside the broadcaster's London headquarters late Saturday.

"To have been the director-general of the BBC even for a short period, and in the most challenging of circumstances, has been a great honour."

The 50-year-old's leadership is the shortest in the BBC's history. Entwistle announced his resignation the day after the BBC's flagship news programme Newsnight was forced to apologise for wrongly implicating a senior Conservative party figure in abuse at a Welsh children's home in the 1970s.

The director-general said that although he was not aware of last week's Newsnight report before it was aired, quitting was "the honourable thing to do" since he was the BBC's editor-in-chief, and ultimately responsible for all output.