The number of listeners to the Radio 2 breakfast show remained stable during Scott Mills's final months as host, according to newly released figures. The programme attracted a weekly average of 6.42 million listeners between January and March, a slight decrease from 6.47 million in the October to December quarter and from 6.45 million during the same period a year earlier.
Mills Sacking and Allegations
Mills was dismissed by the BBC from his role presenting the UK's most popular breakfast show at the end of March. His departure came shortly before it emerged that the Metropolitan Police had launched an investigation into the 53-year-old in 2016, concerning allegations of serious sexual offences involving a teenage boy under 16 between 1997 and 2000. Since Mills's removal, Gary Davies has been filling in as host, with permanent replacement Sara Cox scheduled to take over in the summer.
Audience Trends
Audiences for the Radio 2 breakfast show have fluctuated in recent years, reaching a low of 6.16 million in July-September 2025 and a high of 6.83 million in October-December 2024. While it continues to be the most listened-to breakfast programme in the country, its audience has declined over the long term from a post-pandemic peak of 7.50 million in October-December 2021.
The listening figures are published by Rajar, the research organisation that suspended data collection during the pandemic before resuming reporting in autumn 2021.
Other BBC Breakfast Shows
The latest Rajar data also reveals that Radio 4's Today programme had an average weekly audience of 5.67 million in January to March, up from 5.47 million in the previous three months but slightly down year on year from 5.70 million. Greg James's Radio 1 breakfast show recorded a quarterly increase, rising from 3.87 million to 3.91 million listeners, though this remains lower than the 4.07 million recorded a year earlier.
Radio 2 Overall Performance
Radio 2 remains comfortably the UK's most popular radio station, with a total average weekly audience of 12.57 million. This is down from 12.71 million in the previous quarter and represents a 5% drop from 13.11 million a year ago. Helen Thomas, head of Radio 2, commented: "Radio 2 continues to shine as the UK's most listened to single radio station. Congratulations to Vernon Kay, who continues to present the UK's most popular radio show, attracting a huge weekly audience of 6.63 million each week. I'm also delighted that 20% of our audience now listen to us on Smart speakers – a record high for the station as technology continues to evolve."
Listeners to Radio 2 have been declining slowly over the past few years, now more than two million lower than the post-pandemic high of 14.87 million in October-December 2021.
BBC 6 Music and Digital Stations
In contrast, BBC 6 Music experienced a surge in listeners in the latest data, both on the previous quarter and year on year. Its average audience in January to March was 2.65 million, up 11% from 2.40 million in October-December and up 3% from 2.58 million 12 months earlier. BBC 6 Music was recently named Station of the Year at the 2026 Music Week awards.
The BBC's total share of all time spent listening to radio in the UK reached 43.4%, the highest since the end of 2024. For the first time, Rajar has reported figures for the digital spin-off stations of Radios 1 and 3. Radio 1 Dance attracted an average weekly audience of 437,000 listeners, Radio 1 Anthems had 417,000, and Radio 3 Unwind had 388,000.
Kate Phillips, BBC chief content officer, said: "The BBC continues to be the number one radio brand and I'm delighted that 2026 has got off to such an impressive start with audiences across the country enjoying our unrivalled music and speech offer. This quarter is the first to include data from our new brand extensions on DAB+ for Radio 1 and Radio 3 and it's great to see how successfully they have performed. As the audio landscape continues to go through rapid change, the strength of live listening alongside the record-breaking growth of on-demand on BBC Sounds, underscores how the BBC is continuing to innovate and give licence fee payers a variety and quality of choice that can't be found anywhere else."
Commercial Radio
Elsewhere, audiences for the commercial radio station Greatest Hits fell 20% year on year, from 7.14 million in January-March 2025 to 5.74 million in the latest three months. This represents the lowest number of weekly listeners for the station since January-March 2023.
