Zoe Ball has announced she's stepping down from the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show after six years.
The broadcaster will stay with the station, with news on her future projects to be announced in the New Year. Zoe's last Breakfast Show will air on December 20, with Scott Mills announced to take over in 2025 as part of wider Radio 2 schedule changes.
Speaking live on air during her Tuesday morning (November 19) broadcast, Zoe said: "Okay, you lovely bunch, I have some news. After six years of fun times alongside you all on the Breakfast Show, I've decided it's time to step away from the early alarm call and start a new chapter.
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"You know I think the world of you all listeners, and it truly has been such a privilege to share the mornings with you, to go through life's little ups and downs – we got through the lockdown together, didn't we?
"We've shared a hell of a lot, the good times, the tough times, there's been a lot of laughter."
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Zoe added that she will miss the listeners, her "amazing Prod Squad" and her colleagues.
"[I'm] already missing Mike, I'm going to miss Tina and Richie. They've all become like family to me, like you lot. But I won’t miss the 4am alarm call, if I'm completely honest."
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Adding that she will stay with the "amazing family" at Radio 2, Zoe thanked her senior colleagues for their support, particularly following the death of her mother earlier this year.
She continued: "I just want to say I'm so grateful to my incredible boss ladies, to Helen and Laura and Lorna and Fiona, they have always been so supportive of me especially in this job and particularly this year, so thank you ladies.
"Now of course it leaves us with a big question, who is going to wake you up in the mornings? Well the good news is you don't have to wait very long to find out.
"I am going to reveal the brand new host of the Radio 2 Breakfast Show on this show this morning."
Later, Zoe confirmed that Scott will become the new host of Radio 2's Breakfast Show in the new year.
They have long been friends, and they hosted shows back-to-back during their Radio 1 days when Scott presented the early breakfast slot and Zoe was in charge of Radio 1's breakfast show.
"Zoe and I have been such good friends now for over 25 years and have spent much of that time as part of the same radio family here at Radio 2 and also on Radio 1," Scott said in a statement.
"She's done an incredible job on this show over the past six years, and I am beyond excited to be handed the baton.”
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Kate (they/she) is a freelance writer, editor, digital editorial trainer and data technician who first joined Digital Spy as an overnight freelance sub-editor in January 2011, after studying a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Salford University while working part-time as a social researcher.
In July 2013, Kate joined the DS staff team as chief sub-editor and following six years as the site's managing editor, their role expanded to incorporate Hearst UK's entertainment portfolio (including Digital Spy and its sibling titles Best and Inside Soap) between late 2024 and early 2026.
Kate has worked as a writer and editor since 2006, with bylines syndicated across the Hearst network and at organisations including Metro. They started their career as a TV production runner for the BBC and contributed to various music websites, blogs and zines while based in Manchester.
During her time at DS, Kate has previously been a freelance sub-editor and chief sub-editor.
Kate's team at Digital Spy were proudly nominated in the Best Subbing/Production Team category at the BSME Talent Awards 2022. Over the years, she has contributed to coverage of many, many Prime Days and Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and was part of the team that launched the DS weekly TV newsletter in November 2019 – followed by the Top of the Shops e-commerce newsletter in May 2024.
Kate's screen passions include Taskmaster (their biggest career regret remains turning down the opportunity to visit the house), nature documentaries, and live sport (up there with the greatest of all soap operas although if asked to choose, it's Corrie… every time).
Her highlights while working at DS have included interviewing Stevie Nicks on the red carpet for her documentary In Your Dreams, sitting at a press roundtable with Formula 1 commentary icon Murray Walker, watching a life-sized LEGO car being driven around Silverstone, writing an album-by-album retrospective of Lady Gaga's genre-defying career for Living Legends, and raising awareness of receiving and understanding a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis through the lens of Bianca and Freddie's EastEnders storyline.
Upon remembering to log off the internet, Kate enjoys live theatre, dance and comedy, appreciating nature, baking (badly), tending a recently-rented allotment (equally badly) and pampering one very spoiled rescue cat named Jolene.
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