BBC News: Presenters & Rotas

Unless they get Sara to stand in on Breakfast when Zoe is off and get cover for Drivetime instead. I could see this becoming the preferred option and it worked well on Radio 1 for many years. With the exception of Claudia Winkleman perhaps, it is difficult for me to see who else currently at Radio 2 would be best suited to sit in for Zoe Ball whereas Drivetime is possibly easier to cover too.

Looks like this is what will happen.

I did get it! Zoe is just filling in for the 42 weeks I’m on holiday... thanks tho x

— sara cox💙 (@sarajcox) October 3, 2018

The people who have been writing and preparing the news for Moira won't just disappear though and it would be completely pointless for her and the 6 music presenter to write separate bulletins when a very similar if not the same script can work for both. I'd also imagine the sports presenter will have less of a role than before as Zoe will want to change the feel of the show as new breakfast shows are never successful if they try and imitate what came before.

The scripts for the news on radios 6 and 2 are quite different, they may have the same items in the same order but 6's news is much shorter and snappier.

I would have thought that they'll have another journalist working with them to help out, and as an extra pair of hands for when there's a big story happening. If Moira didn't wrote her own news then they might have saved a head

That tweet was from before Simon Mayo left and she got the drivetime job, though. I hear that she said last week when she was doing the breakfast show that it would be the last time she'd be doing it.

I think the last time R2 had one of their mainstream weekday presenters, sitting on for another mainstream weekday presenter was Johnny Walker sitting in for Wogan (about 15 years ago ?)

And that is what Sara told This Morning earlier this week.

Thank you Steve. Shame, I enjoyed Sara on the breakfast show. Perhaps Mark Goodier as he has been filling in this week.

It probably just means someone across the road can actually focus on their proper job rather than having to write bulletins as well as check them. Outside of Breakfast, it's actually quite funny seeing the duty newsreader running between floors every 30 mins for each bulletin.

I think Tina is great appointment, and has been said already hardly a demotion - it's the UK's most popular radio programme. I presume she'll also continue her work on Beyond Today with Matthew Price and, just like Mishal, I'm sure she will pop up as stand-in on various bulletins.

One I do feel sorry for is Justine Green. She's been after that gig all the time that Big M was there...

That did happen a few times, and then when Walker moved off drivetime in 2006, it was announced he'd be the regular stand-in for Wogan.

It happens much more frequently on Radio 1, Scott Mills was the regular stand-in for Nick Grimshaw, although it makes sense to have a high profile stand-in on the biggest show on the station. I remember during the short-lived period Mark and Lard were on breakfast, Kevin Greening was their stand-in, when he was doing drivetime, and in turn Mark Goodier would stand in for him on drivetime - which struck me as odd as Goodier was the previous presenter of that slot so he was standing in on his old show.

Mark Goodier has a new gig doing weekday mornings on Bauer's new Greatest Hits Rado.

Oddly it started this Monday, when Mark's on Radio 2 breakfast so apparently he's appeared on it but won't start doing his full shows until next week.

Indeed, will be interesting to see if Scott Mills continues to be Greg's cover on Breakfast. I think he's already done it a few times but they also had Matt and Mollie from weekend breakfast cover over the new year, which IMO makes more sense, especially since they now do Fridays so weekend breakfast is a better gig than it was before.