I don’t expect to earn same as Evans, says Ball as she takes Breakfast reins at Radio 2
As Chris Evans’s replacement, the DJ and presenter will bring fun and fizz to the morning slog, says Charlotte Runcie
‘I’m very, very happy with what the BBC are paying. If it’ll all come out one day … I hope people say “that’s fair”’
ZOE BALL has revealed she will not be paid the same salary as Chris Evans as she takes over from him on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show.
Ball, 47, said she is “very happy” with what the BBC offered her despite it being lower than Evans’ £1.6million annual pay.
The presenter, who will be the first ever female Radio 2 Breakfast Show host, earned between £250,000 and £299,000 for her work at the BBC last year.
However, she hinted that she had been given a pay rise.
Addressing her salary, she told the BBC: “I’m definitely not expecting the same. But I have to say we’ve discussed fees and I’m very, very happy with what the BBC are paying. If it’ll all come out one day as these things tend to, I hope people say, ‘that’s fair’.”
The announcement that Ball would take the reins as Evans’s replacement was made on his show yesterday morning, as she joined him in the studio as a surprise guest.
She said: “This is bonkers, can I just say? I’m a crazy mix of elation, wanting to burst into tears, thinking of running away, but most of all thrilled. I haven’t been able to sleep all night.”
Evans congratulated Ball, telling her she “lights up the radio”.
Although she was once known for her raucous partying lifestyle, Ball’s life has changed dramatically over recent years.
She celebrated two years of being sober this July, and insisted yesterday that being awake at the crack of dawn was a very different experience for her now.
The presenter said: “I’ll be expecting a peppermint tea. Things are very different 20 years on, I’m a busy working mum now. Peppermint tea and a slice of cake, a fried egg sandwich. That’s the way I want to celebrate.”
Ball was the favourite to take over as the presenter of the show and, as the first female to host Radio 1’s Breakfast Show solo, she is no stranger to smashing the glass ceiling. She has also stepped in for Evans on the Breakfast Show, and hosts a live Saturday show on Radio 2. Her television jobs include being the host of BBC spin-off show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.
Lord Hall, the BBC director-general, recently said that a factor in Evans’s decision to quit Radio 2 was the disclosure of his pay packet. Since salaries were revealed last year, there has been much discussion over fees for the broadcaster’s biggest talents.
Evans, 52, was the second-highestpaid star at the BBC after Gary Lineker in 2017-18 and announced last month he was returning to Virgin Radio after 20 years. Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson described the appointment as a “major coup”.
The Nineties are dead; long live the Nineties. Chris Evans’s radio breakfast show is to be taken over by Zoe Ball. But the year is 2018, we’re all a bit more weather-beaten, and we’re talking about Radio 2, not Radio 1. With Evans stepping down from the breakfast show – the most listened-to radio show in the UK, and the most coveted job in entertainment radio – the BBC has announced that the new host is to be the veteran DJ and TV presenter Zoe Ball.
This is a big deal for those of us who shape our lives to the sound of the radio. I generally tune in to every major network during the week, but if it’s a particularly dark and murky morning – the sort of day when it’s raining, the trains are up the spout and the baby’s been awake all night – nothing thrusts me into the day quite like the audio sunshine of Radio 2. So if there’s any chance the show will be diluted, that spells trouble.
But this choice is good news. In many respects Ball’s the natural successor to Evans, and they have comparable careers. Evans was the popular bad boy of Nineties TV, presenting The Big Breakfast and TFI Friday in zany style, as well as being laddishly provocative as host of the breakfast show on Radio 1. But he has mellowed and matured considerably to become downright familial while at Radio 2.
Like Evans, Ball spent the Nineties as a broadcasting party animal, also hosting The Big Breakfast, and she was in fact the first ever female presenter of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. So
The BBC’S decision is good news, but Sara Cox must be wondering what she’s got to do to get this gig
there’s a pleasing symmetry in her now becoming the first female presenter of its Radio 2 counterpart. One major shift in tone, however, might be in the family atmosphere of the slot. Evans is an instinctively open character, which is an ideal trait for a breakfast show presenter. We shared in his tearful account of the death of his mother earlier this year, followed by the joyous news of the birth of his twins last month. We make his voice a central feature of our daily routines, and it has felt as though he reciprocated that intimacy, like Terry Wogan did before him. Ball’s off-air life has been difficult: a 47-yearold mother-of-two, she has spoken publicly about negotiating family break-up and bereavement, but it remains to be seen whether, as regular breakfast show host, Ball will bring us into her home life quite as readily as Evans does.
Meanwhile, many regular listeners will be asking, what has fellow Radio 2 DJ Sara Cox got to do to get this gig? She has filled in for Evans with great success countless times, and has already built up ample rapport with his listeners. She’s lovable, giggly, occasionally indiscreet, and best of all she cracks excellent jokes. Evans’s listeners already love her, and the warmth of her presenting style is perfectly suited to breakfast radio. Her name would certainly have been in contention for the job.
After all, if an irrepressible female northerner can be the new Doctor in Doctor Who, can’t another one present the UK’S bestloved breakfast show?
Thankfully, Evans’s listeners won’t be saying goodbye to Cox. She is due to fill in for 10 weeks a year. Cox herself tweeted in response to questions over why she didn’t get the coveted role, “I did get it! Zoe is just filling in for the 42 weeks I’m on holiday…” That’s one way of looking at it.
Maybe a compromise solution could have been a very modern job-share, with joint billing: Cox and Ball’s Breakfast Show (no sniggering at the back).
The answer to why the job went to Ball probably comes down to star power. She has felt the sheen of Strictly Come Dancing stardust as regular presenter of Strictly It Takes
Two, and a relief presenter of the main event when Claudia Winkleman was away (as well as competing herself for the glitterball). As far as BBC bosses are concerned, Ball is already in their top tier of talent. And maybe Cox’s time will come: she’s also a Radio 1 Breakfast Show alumna, after all.
I’ll be eagerly anticipating what Ball makes of it. Her radio personality is fizzy and fun, as well as efficient and in control. I rather like the idea of her brisk company in the morning, and I certainly trust her to get us all out of the door on time. Even if it does feel like 1998 all over again.