Chris Evans’ Radio 2 breakfast show has lost half a million listeners in one year, reveal new figures from Rajar.
The research body tracks how well the UK’s various radio stations are doing and their latest release shows that 9.01 million people a week tuned in to hear Chris between April and July 2017.
While this figure is still impressive - and means he holds on to the title of most popular morning show - it is a decrease of almost half a million compared to the same period of the year before, when the programme charted 9.47 million listeners.
Chris was revealed as the BBC’s highest-earner in the corporation’s annual report, which now has to include the salaries of all staff taking home over £150,000.
The report revealed Chris earns a whopping £2.2 million per year and he spoke out on the matter live on Radio 2.
The presenter told listeners that he had turned to his 91-year-old mum for advice on what to say to people questioning his pay packet.
He explained: “She said, ’tell them that your mum, who’s a nurse for most of her life, always told you after your dad died to try to find a job you loved, just like I love nursing, and earn what you can, when you can, while you can - which you did almost straight away from when you were a paper boy earning £1.50 a week for freezing your bits off and falling off your bike every two minutes, right through until what you’re doing now.
″And tell them - if your bosses don’t think you’re worth it one day, they’ll sort that out soon enough.’”