The Radio 1Breakfast Show is a radio show that is broadcast across the UK from 6:30am to 10am, then five days a week until June 2018, when the Friday show was dropped and incorporated into the station's weekend schedule, hosted by Weekend Breakfast hosts Matt Edmondson and Mollie King.
History
The first breakfast show presenter was Tony Blackburn, who spoke the first words on Radio 1 and remained in the slot for nearly six years. Other DJs who have hosted the breakfast show for more than five years are former hosts Nick Grimshaw, Mike Read, Simon Mayo. and Chris Moyles for eight years, Moyles was the longest-serving Radio 1 breakfast show presenter, having hosted Radio 1's The Chris Moyles Show for eight years from 2004 to 2012.
replaced Moyles as host of the breakfast show on 24 September 2012. Features include Call or Delete – a game carried on from his previous show on Radio 1, where celebrity guests choose to either prank call a contact on their phone or delete their number altogether. Other segments include The Nixtape – which sees Grimshaw select 30 minutes of party-oriented music before a DJ comes in to mix listener requests to close the week on Friday morinings, Happy Monday, a half-hour of uplifting songs on Monday mornings, Showquizness, an irreverent daily quiz based around pop culture, Happy Hardcore FM, which sees listeners phone into the show to scream over happy hardcore beats, and the daily Waking Up Song, which features celebrities encouraging listeners to get out of bed to the sound of Pharoahe Monch. Grimshaw's incarnation of the breakfast show has received strong critical reviews through his tenure but has polarised public opinion, which is reflected in the show's often fluctuating listening figures – in February 2015, the show had 5.9 million listeners, with a small increase in listenership of 100,000. On 26 October 2017, it was reported that the show recorded 4.93 million weekly listeners between July and September – down from 5.5 million last quarter, a record low. The Newsbeat news and sport bulletins are presented by Tina Daheley at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, 8:30 and 9:30; there is also entertainment news from Sinead Garven at approximately 7:45 each morning.
Greg James (2018–present)
replaced Grimshaw as host of the breakfast show on 20 August 2018. Roisin Hastie reads the bulletins for Newsbeat every half-hour except at 09:00. Features include Yesterday’s Quiz and the Ten Minute Takeover, alongside Game of Phones and Unpopular Opinions. In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Radio 1 Breakfast was moved to 7am until 11am. Adele Roberts' Early Breakfast Show was extended by thirty minutes until 7am. Scott Mills, Chris Stark and Clara Amfo rotate their shows every week between 11am and 3pm and Nick Grimshaw starts his show at the earlier time of 3pm. It's to help Radio 1 promote social distancing and to limit the number of staff allowed in the studio.
Stand-ins
Holiday cover is usually provided by another prominent member of the Radio 1 presenting team – the job rarely goes to an outsider. Although in 1985, Noel Edmonds covered the programme for 2 weeks when then presenter Mike Read was on holiday. Additionally, transitions between regular hosts have often been bridged by stand-ins. These have been:
Adrian John covered the period between Mike Read's departure and Mike Smith's arrival in April 1986.
Mark Goodier covered the period between Mike Smith's departure and Simon Mayo's arrival in May 1988.
Bruno Brookes covered the period between Mark Goodier's departure and Steve Wright's arrival in December 1993.
Scott Mills covered the period between Zoe Ball's departure and Sara Cox's arrival in March 2000, again in December 2003 preceding Sara Cox's departure and Chris Moyles' arrival, and again in September 2012 after Chris Moyles's departure and before Nick Grimshaw's arrival. He most recently covered in August 2018 in the transition period between the tenures of Nick Grimshaw's departure and Greg James's arrival.
