The BBC are at present scrambling to discover a substitute for Scott Mills on their flagship Radio 2 Breakfast Present.
Scott Mills had solely been presenting the Radio 2 breakfast present for a yr when he was sacked (Picture: PA)
It’s going to in all probability come as no shock to be taught that for the previous three weeks my inbox has been stuffed with hypothesis about who will substitute Scott Mills on the BBC Radio 2 breakfast present following his sacking from the BBC. It’s apparently thought-about a primo gig with a beneficiant wage. When Scott took over the primary breakfast present from Zoe Ball in 2025, the transfer made him one of many highest-paid presenters on the company – together with his wage being between £315,000 to £319,999 in 2024. Since his departure, radio legend Gary Davies has been standing in whereas BBC bosses work behind the scenes to discover a long-term substitute.
Nonetheless, I can not think about why any of the names being touted, akin to Vernon Kay and Sara Cox, may need the job. It has a punishing schedule with the brutal early mornings, and lets not neglect the impression in your private and social life. In case you are not accustomed to the present, it begins every weekday at 6.30am. This implies waking up at round 3am, 5 days per week, to and arrive on the studio not less than an hour later – as a result of the hosts do not simply arrive and go straight on air.
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You’re then broadcasting for 3 hours till 9.30am – however your day does not finish there as behind the scenes preparation work must be finished for the upcoming episode the next day. Whilst you could get dwelling within the afternoon each single breakfast presenter I’ve ever interviewed, whether or not they work on TV or radio, has mentioned they use this time to nap. They aren’t having fun with lengthy lunches with mates or afternoons within the cinema. One or two could even squeeze in a exercise earlier than they go to mattress.
For these with households they will then stand up to spend time with them within the night. However neglect about going to a present or having a correct night time out. With an alarm set for 3am they may must be again in mattress earlier than 9pm, except they need to find yourself struggling severe sleep deprivation and all the problems that brings. Breakfast reveals can take its toll.
Do not consider me? Then maybe Mark Cummings account of engaged on BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s Breakfast present will persuade you. He left the function in 2023 after 18 years and in 2024 mirrored on it on his weblog. “I hated the three:30am alarm clock. Hated it. It made me really feel nearly bodily sick. For the primary twenty minutes of my day I used to be in a darkish, acrid stupor…,” he wrote.
He continued: “I’d get to the studio at 4:45am and I’d work like a dervish to arrange for that morning’s present. I’d get dwelling after noon and attempt to get an hour’s kip. Generally I’d find yourself in a three-hour coma after which not be capable of get to sleep that night time. I spent my complete life battling exhaustion residing in a jet lagged fog….
“Very often weekends could be spent in mattress with a headache and I usually didn’t unwind on vacation till the day earlier than we needed to come again. I might by no means management my consuming sample and my weight yo-yoed excessively,” he recalled.
Whereas he described the job as “joyous, exhilarating and significant,” the presenter acknowledged appreciating his new schedule which permits him to sleep, eat effectively, train and in addition “the possibility to lift a glass of pink wine at 11pm on a Sunday night time to all of the Breakfast Present presenters I do know who ought to have been in mattress by 8”.
Each title I’ve seen bandied about to take over the job is a effective broadcaster. They might do a tremendous job. However in addition they have wealthy and full lives exterior of their present jobs and the breakfast present would absolutely infringe on that.
It might be a effectively paid and prestigous job however it is usually a punishing one that does not sound all that interesting.
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