Sorry, Zoe, but you’re a real turn-off!

JAN MOIR

ZOE BALL loses more than a million listeners — how very careless of her. Yet many of us will be surprised the number is not larger. Since taking over the BBC Radio 2 breakfast show from Chris Evans last year, her ratings have been on the slide.

Listeners have been switching off in their droves, unable to bear the Ball-babble and general yummy-mummy inanity. The BBC’s main national radio stations have all shed listeners over the past year as audiences turned to commercial networks.

Radio 2 leads the decline, partly because of promoting Zoe Ball (gah!) and Sara Cox (ugh!) to high-profile slots in an overhaul of schedules. Lauren Laverne thrives on BBC Radio 6, where she is deep within her comfort zone, but her tenure at Desert Island Discs is more problematic. Listeners know these appointments have never worked, but bosses plough on, determined to put female voices on primetime shows, even if they don’t fit the bill. This is what happens when you prioritise gender over ability. Ball’s breakfast show has posted another quarterly decline, Cox is just about holding her own on drive-time and Laverne is no Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs. How much longer can she remain in her post, especially with Victoria Derbyshire at a loose end? VD on DID? Now that would be an island worth visiting.