‘I’m so tired’: Nick Grimshaw quits Radio 1 breakfast show

Nick Grimshaw has announced that he is stepping down as the host of the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in September, saying he has had enough of the early starts.

The 33-year-old, who took on the morning gig in 2012, said it “was always my dream to do the breakfast show”, but that it was not a “forever job”.

“I’m really tired,” he said. “So tired. You have no idea.”

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Comparing the effect of the daily 6.30am starts to jet lag, “Grimmy” said he looked forward to throwing his alarm clocks away when he passes the gig on to fellow Radio 1 DJ Greg James in September.

Grimshaw will take over James’ current 4pm-7pm drivetime slot on the station.

James said he was “beside himself” to take on the breakfast mantle. “The listeners have become like mates during the ten years I've been on air, so to be there when they wake up is a real honour,” he said.

Radio 1 boss Ben Cooper said the swap meant that “Greg gets his childhood dream [and] Grimmy gets a lie-in”, adding: “It’s going to be fantastic.”

Fellow DJs and listeners paid tribute to Grimmy, whose six-year tenure makes him second only to Chris Moyles as the station’s longest-serving breakfast DJ:

However, not everyone was sad to see him go:

Listenership has been in decline in recent years, falling from the Moyles-era high of 7 million listeners every morning to a low of less than 5 million in 2017.

According to the latest figures from radio audience monitor Rajar, the show attracted 5.1m listeners in the first quarter of 2018 - a drop of 600,000 from the previous quarter and the “second lowest audience figures since current records began”, The Daily Telegraph reports.