The curse of the Radio 1 Breakfast Show from breakdowns to 17-hour pub crawls and being 'high' on air
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The Radio 1 Breakfast Show has to be one of the most gruelling jobs in the world of showbiz.
Kicking off at 6.30am the bleary-eyed host needs to be cheery and chipper from the get go.
With a 10am finish the day might seem simple enough but the early shift soon takes it toll on celebrity hosts who often attend showbiz events late into the night.
As Nick Grimshaw steps down from the BBC show after six years, he admits to being "really tired".
He added: "Six years is a long time and this isn't a forever job."
(Image: Instagram / nicholasgrimshaw)
And maybe he's got out at just the right time as the show is known for running its hosts into the ground...
Chris Moyles
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Chris Moyles sparked fears for his health after serving eight years on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show from 2004 until 2012.
"I'm not having a breakdown," he insisted in January 2012 while posting an exhausted-looking selfie.
The Radio 1 star sparked concerns after he made an on-air rant at the BBC for not paying him for two months.
He had also recently split from long-term girlfriend Sophie Waite and been sleeping on his brother's sofa.
He joked: "I feel very well, everything is all right, I'm not Ron Burgundy having a breakdown. I'm absolutely fine and looking forward to the weekend. I haven't drunk any milk out of a carton."
Chris Evans
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Chris Evans presented the show from 1995 until 1997 when his outrageous demands became too much for the BBC.
He took the crew out on a 17-hour pub crawl that ended two hours before they were due on air - resulting in his first big falling-out with management.
He was fined one day's pay, £7,000.
Despite his outrageous behaviour he deemed himself indispensable and once took an extra week of unplanned holiday and then turned up half an hour late for his show.
He demanded his hours were changed so he could arrive at 7am every day and his request was accepted.
(Image: MirrorPix)
In November 2016, Evans announced on air that he was medically unfit to be on the radio - and he re-negotiated his contract to double his holiday.
After more boozy nights out with Paul Gascoigne and Danny Baker, Evans quit in January 1997 when his demand not to have Fridays off to prepare for his TV show TFI Friday was rejected.
Zoe Ball
(Image: Press Association)
In 1998, Zoe reigned as queen of the ladettes and was the hard-partying, highly-paid presenter of Radio 1’s Breakfast show.
Zoe was hosting the breakfast show from Ibiza when she met her future husband Norman Cook and they were a match made in hedonistic heaven.
Zoe said of their first encounter: “We bumped into Norman and he said: ‘How would you like to not go to bed with me tonight?’, meaning let’s go out all night. So we went into every club in Ibiza and I did the Breakfast Show the next morning on no sleep. But what a night!”
Zoe she admitted she was so ‘high’ when she was due to host a live broadcast from the island the following morning she had trouble speaking.
(Image: Mirrorpix)
She said: “As the show finished and my high from the night before started to fade, I looked around at the Radio 1 people and thought, ’I might get the sack.’"
Zoe also revealed that before she announced her exit from Radio 1 in 2000, BBC bosses were increasingly concerned for her mental health.
She said: “I remember turning up one day looking at the clock and trying to say it’s ten past seven – and all the words came out in the wrong order.
“So something had to give. I know the bosses were a bit concerned about my health – and my mental health.”