Chris Evans will not be going out on a high when he leaves BBC Radio 2 later this year.
His Breakfast Show has fallen to its lowest ratings in six years, it has been revealed.
Chris pulled in 8.8 million listeners a week in the third quarter of 2018, according to audience research body Rajar, marking the first time he has dropped to below nine million weekly listeners since 2012.
The data also reveals the Breakfast Show is down over half a million listeners on the same period last year.
It is also a drop of 600,000 on the previous quarter of 2018, when 9.4m weekly listeners were tuning in.
The last time he pulled numbers below 9m was from the July to September of 2012, when 8.5m listened per week.
It’s not all bad news for Chris though, as the show is still the nation’s most popular radio programme.
Chris, who has hosted the Radio 2 Breakfast Show since 2010, will leave the station in December to return to Virgin Radio.
He will be succeeded by Zoe Ball, who will become the first woman to ever host the programme.
Elsewhere, the ratings for the Radio 1 Breakfast Show have remained steady in the transition period between former host Nick Grimshaw and new presenter Greg James.
The show has recorded just under 4.9 million weekly listeners in the third quarter of 2018.
Although the results show just one month of Greg’s tenure after taking the hot seat in August, Nick was pulling in 4.9m listeners per week over the same period last year.
