Less ego than Chris Evans... but can nervy Zoe stop Radio 2’s morning fans tuning out?
THESE are jittery times for the BBC. TV audiences are falling like a stone, especially among the young, and Netflix is battering iPlayer. Radio 1 long ago stopped being number one, and only Radio 2 has sailed on serenely, as Britain’s biggest radio station with 15million listeners weekly.
Then late last year, its stellar talent Chris Evans announced he was quitting the Breakfast Show.
So it’s no wonder his successor, Zoe Ball, claimed to be suffering anxiety dreams ahead of her debut yesterday – the first woman to take the prestigious slot.
She opened with Aretha Franklin’s Respect. A few minutes in and she read out a listener’s comment that she was sounding ‘comfortable and relaxed’.
‘If only you knew...’ she replied with feeling.
After all, she has Evans breathing down her neck. His new breakfast show begins on Virgin Radio next week, and some of his 9million Radio 2 listeners will no doubt move with him.
Evans has already roped in his family to help promote his new programme.
The 52-year-old, his wife Natasha Shishmanian and their two eldest sons Noah, nine and Eli, six, fronted a series of short videos for the channel.
Wearing pyjamas and t-shirts with Virgin branding emblazoned across the front, they held signs in a Love Actually style clip to tell viewers how to listen to Evans’ new show on Monday.
The BBC’s response to Evans’ departure has been to chuck everything at the new show.
Ball herself is one of the Corporation’s most reliable stars, from her children’s TV and Radio 1 days through to being a likeable host of the Strictly Come Dancing spin-off, It Takes Two.
And now she’s confirmed that she is to radio what a duck is to water – but few bosses can today take the risk of putting their faith in a single host with a bunch of records.
Instead, they create what’s called a ‘zoo format’ with a range of sidekicks stirred into the mix. They dutifully signalled their presence by whooping to Ball’s cue, and sharing stories of first-morning nerves.
There are two big risks with this kind of format. The first is that the chemistry might not work.
When I was Controller of 5 Live we piloted a new breakfast team of formidable broadcasters who nevertheless sounded like strangers in a room. At the last minute, we brought in a young woman from local radio called Victoria Derbyshire and the show was transformed.
The other risk is that it all sounds like a party full of people you’d rather avoid.
Not so the Ball show: it’s a party to which you’re welcomed by a team who are making ‘puppy dog eyes’ at you via the mic. They want to be loved!
None of the team was guilty of rabbiting on for no purpose, however. They dropped in and out of the programme, proving that Ball can easily carry a show alone when she has to.
Yesterday’s star guests – John Cleese and Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain – were distinctly underwhelming. Cleese plugged a forthcoming comedy programme and rambled away with the occasional unreliable anecdote.
It was a morning when, understandably, Ball wasn’t taking risks but I’d like to hear her develop sharper questions and more sense of mischief. Other spots came and went without leaving any impression. The ‘seven-second shout out’ – a chance to say hello to family and friends – manages to patronise one listener and offer no value to the rest.
‘Show and Tell’ has the potential to curl toes as allegedly talented youngsters demonstrate their abilities via dodgy mobile phone lines.
Yesterday, it was someone singing Oom Pah Pah from ‘Oliver!’, but Ball said in future it could be a youngster doing something like, well, counting in a foreign language .....
ZOE Ball wasn’t the only ‘new girl’ on Radio 2 yesterday, as Sara Cox (Drivetime) and Jo Whiley launched their own shows.
It is quite a transformation in what used to an entirely male peak time line up, but in 2019 it fits comfortably with the wider media world.
Will it work? This is an amiable programme with decent music, and Ball is warm and lively as a breakfast companion. I predict most of the audience will stay with Radio 2, and she’ll beat Evans’ digital-only offering by many multiples.
Whether it will be as compelling a listen as Evans at his best, I doubt, but the reduction in egotism is refreshing.
I think the BBC can be optimistic that Radio 2 will at least stay afloat in these choppy waters.