After a tense few weeks, bosses at Radio 2 can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Their search for a breakfast show host is over and, as widely predicted, the answer was right in front of them all along: Sara Cox.
With 25 years at the BBC under her belt, the Bolton-born DJ will take over from the already-out Scott Mills in the summer and as listeners of her drivetime show can attest, there’s nobody at the broadcaster better suited to the job.
Cox started her broadcasting career in the mid-1990s and rose to fame alongside Radio 2 stablemate and pal Zoe Ball, who hosted the breakfast show until December 2024. With Cox co-presenting Channel 4’s bold late-night offerings The Girly Show and Born Sloppy and Ball fronting the kids’ art show sMART and Top of the Pops, the pair fast became paparazzi favourites and were often snapped out on raucous nights out – just as their male contemporaries were. While the men of the era were hailed as rockstars and rebels though, Cox and Ball were slapped with the derogatory “ladette” label – but it’s the presenters who have come out laughing, all these years later.
In the late 1990s, Cox landed her biggest gig yet with a spot on The Big Breakfast, taking over from Paula Yates to conduct the show’s infamous interviews, where she was joined by the likes of Robbie Williams and a fresh-from-Titanic Leonardo DiCaprio.
She switched from TV to radio in 1999, joining Ball at Radio 1. Within a year, she’d taken over from Ball on the Breakfast Show. Cox remained the programme’s host until December 2003, when she effectively swapped with Chris Moyles, who took the morning slot while Cox finally got her AMs back and began hosting the station’s drivetime offering.
Over the decade that followed, Cox hosted a variety of shows on the station in between periods of maternity leave as she welcomed her three children, with her final Radio 1 show airing in February 2014.
In a move that’s almost customary for Radio 1 presenters, she then made the hop over to Radio 2 and essentially auditioned for a permanent job by becoming a regular stand-in for the breakfast, drivetime and afternoon slots.
The hard work paid off: Cox launched her own late-night show in 2018 and, in January 2019, she was announced as Simon Mayo’s successor on the drivetime programme where she has, until now, remained since.
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With Cox at the helm, the drivetime show has blossomed with exactly the kind of silliness listeners need at the end of the work day or after the school run. On the music front, she keeps the tunes coming and devotes the final 30 minutes to a “half wow-er” mix of back-to-back tracks designed to get even the grumpiest souls up and dancing.
And more so perhaps than any other Radio 2 show, Cox’s programme brings the listeners in thanks to features including Totally Teavoted, where listeners can prove their avid fandom by answering their phone with each week’s catchphrase, and Kids in the Car, which features sweet voice notes from the youngest Radio 2 fans (and a jingle that’s impossible to forget).
While Cox will hopefully keep the audience participation elements going strong, the breakfast show will reunite her with big-name guests. The early programme is traditionally the one that welcomes the A-listers. Ball’s “Friends Round Friday” was rebranded “Big Guest Friday” for Mills’ tenure. (First job for the team: come up with a better name for it.)
It’s no surprise that she’s been rumoured for the breakfast show multiple times before. When the BBC was replacing Chris Evans in 2018, the contest was largely seen as Zoe versus Sara – and the former ultimately won. Cox later insisted she wasn’t interested in the role, offering the straight-talking summary: “Breakfast is a great gig, it’s an amazing show to do, it’s great money, but I can’t mop my kids’ tears with a wad of fifties.” She was later rumoured to be in the running when Ball left in December 2024, but once again, stuck with teatime.
So what’s changed? Well, her kids are older for a start. And with almost eight years of teatime under her belt, maybe it’s simply time to mix things up. Whatever the reasoning, bosses will surely be delighted. Mills may have been hailed as a safe pair of hands when he took over, but with hindsight, perhaps Cox should have been the first choice all along.
