The number of listeners to the Radio 2 breakfast show held steady during Scott Mills’s final months as host, figures show.
The programme enjoyed a weekly average of 6.42 million in January to March, down only slightly from 6.47 million in October to December and from 6.45 million a year earlier.
Mills was sacked by the BBC from his job presenting the most popular breakfast show in the UK at the end of March, shortly before it emerged the Metropolitan Police had launched an investigation into the 53-year-old in 2016, over allegations of serious sexual offences involving a teenage boy under 16 between 1997 and 2000.
Gary Davies has filled in as host since Mills was removed, with full-time replacement Sara Cox due to start in the summer.
Audiences for the Radio 2 breakfast show have fluctuated in recent years, dipping as low as 6.16 million in July-September 2025 and as high as 6.83 million in October-December 2024.
While it continues to be the most listened to breakfast programme in the country, it has seen its audience drop over the long term from a post-pandemic peak of 7.50 million in October-December 2021.
Listening figures are published by the research organisation Rajar.
The body suspended its collection of data during the pandemic, before resuming reporting in autumn 2021.
The latest Rajar figures also show 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 down slightly year on year from 5.70 million.
Greg James’s Radio 1 breakfast show recorded a quarterly increase, up from 3.87 million to 3.91 million listeners, though lower than the 4.07 million a year earlier.
Radio 2 remains comfortably the UK’s most popular radio station, with a total average weekly audience of 12.57 million, down from 12.71 million in the previous quarter and a drop of 5% from 13.11 million a year ago.
Helen Thomas, head of Radio 2, said: “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 falling slowly over the past few years and are now more than two million lower than the post-pandemic high of 14.87 million in October-December 2021.
By contrast, BBC 6 Music enjoyed a jump 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 last week named Station of the Year at the 2026 Music Week awards.
The BBC’s total share of all time people spend listening to radio in the UK was 43.4%, the highest since the end of 2024.
Rajar has for the first time reported figures for the digital spin-off stations of Radios 1 and 3.
Radio 1 Dance had an average weekly audience in January to March 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.”
Elsewhere, audiences for the commercial radio station Greatest Hits fell 20% in a year, from 7.14 million in January-March 2025 to 5.74 million in the latest three months.
This is the lowest number of weekly listeners to the station since January-March 2023.
