The suits and ties he wears for Countdown have a reputation for their garishness, and it is fairly frequent for his co-presenter, Carol Vorderman, to comment on this. Whiteley also tells many anecdotes and puns, which are often met by groans from other presenters and members of the audience.

He is nicknamed Twice Nightly Whiteley, not in reference to his sex life, but to the time when he would present Yorkshire Television's Calendar News and the Countdown program in the same evening.

Whiteley has moderate international fame from a much-used clip of him being bitten by a ferret in a TV interview. He was also one of the first journalists at the scene of the 1984 Brighton bombing, having been in Brighton's Grand Hotel at the time of the explosion.

He has held the honourary title of Mayor of Wetwang.