Zoe Ball, 53, announced on her Radio 2 Breakfast Show that she is stepping down from the role after six years, with her final show set to air on December 20.

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Ball said she will miss her listeners and colleagues but not getting up early

Ball heaped praise on her successor: “Scott and I go way back to our Radio 1 days, when he was doing early mornings before me. He’s been a close friend for years, and I’m beyond thrilled it’s him taking over the Breakfast Show.

“Breakfast has always been his dream. He’s not only a blooming brilliant producer but one of the best in radio. I can’t wait to tune in on the school run!”

Mills recently stood in for Ball when she took a few weeks off from her show.

Trevor Nelson, who currently presents in the evenings Monday to Thursday, will replace Mills as the presenter of the 2pm to 4pm weekday afternoon show from January.

Nelson said: “I’m looking to have lots of fun and will be bringing a bit of soul to the new show.”

Meanwhile, DJ Spoony will extend his weekly edition of The Good Grove (Friday nights – 9-11pm) to four weekly shows on Monday – Thursday nights and Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco will be extended from one to two hours, kicking off on Friday nights at 9pm.

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Ball hosted the BBC One Saturday morning children’s show Live and Kicking in 1997

Ball first joined BBC Radio in October 1997 as the co-host of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show with co-presenter Kevin Greening. From October 1998 to March 2000, Zoe hosted the programme solo, the first woman to do so.

Helen Thomas, head of Radio 2, said: “Zoe has woken up the nation on Radio 2 with incredible warmth, wit and so much joy since January 2019.

“I’d like to thank her for approaching each show with as much vim and vigour as if it were her first. I’m thrilled that that she’ll remain an important part of the Radio 2 family.”

She was the BBC’s highest-paid on-air female presenter in 2023/24.

Her salary of between £950,000 and £954,999 ranked her second on the list of top-earning talent behind Gary Lineker, according to the corporation’s annual report published in July.

Many more stars don’t make the list, with several of them almost certainly earning more than Ball and Lineker but they are not named because the BBC does not have to disclose the salaries of stars who are paid through production companies.

The latest figures from radio industry body Rajar state that Ball’s programme is the most listened to breakfast show in the UK.

But it dipped by 146,000 listeners to 6.28 million in the most recent quarter, according to industry figures from Rajar.

BBC Radio 2 is the UK’s most listened to radio station, with a weekly audience of 13.3 million, the figures show.

At the 2024 Audio and Radio Industry Awards, also known as the Arias, Scott Mills won gold for the best music entertainment show, while Ball won bronze for the best music breakfast show.