Chris Evans’ Radio 2 breakfast show loses half a million listeners
The presenter was named the BBC’s highest earner last month
Chris Evans’ Radio 2 breakfast show has lost almost half a million listeners in the past year, figures show.
The ratings come just weeks after the 51-year-old was named as the BBC’s highest-paid star, earning between £2.2m and £2.25m a year.
Evans drew in 9.01m listeners a week between April and June 2017, down from 9.47m over the same period in 2016, according to figures released by audience research body Rajar.
The DJ lost 370,000 listeners between the first and second quarter of this year, the figures also show.
But despite this drop, Evans’ programme remains the most listened-to radio show in the country.
Meanwhile, Nick Grimshaw's breakfast show on Radio 1 has enjoyed a rise in its weekly audience – of 350,000 listeners in the last quarter – to reach 5.5m.
And Radio 4 reached its biggest audience since records began in 1999 with 11.55m listeners tuning in every week.
Bob Shennan, director of BBC radio and music, said Radio 4 was "as vital as ever as it approaches its 50th anniversary".
Elsewhere, LBC saw an audience increase following the firing of shock-jock Katie Hopkins, with 2m listeners a week between April and June 2017, compared to 1.7m over the same period in 2016.
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