Chris Evans: BBC's highest paid star loses half a million Radio 2 listeners

The presenter was named the corporation's biggest earner last month

The woman also alleged that after his advances were rebuffed, the star presenter began to bully her and turn co-workers against her (Getty)

The BBC Radio 2 breakfast show presented by Chris Evans has lost almost half a million listeners in the past year, it has been revealed.

Figures show that the DJ - who was named the BBC's highest paid star just a few weeks ago - lost 370,000 listeners between the first and second quarter of 2017.

Audience research body Rajar found that Evans drew 9.01m listeners a week between April and June 2017 compared with 9.47m over the same period in 2016.

It was revealed last month that Evans, as the corporation's biggest earner, was making between £2.2m and £2.25m - more than four times the channel's highest paid woman, presenter Claudia Winkleman.

Radio 1's breakfast show, presented by Nick Grimshaw, has seen a 350,000 increase in its weekly listeners reaching 5.5m while the station has seen its entire audience jump by almost half a million (9.6m compared to 9.1m) in the first three months of the year.

Also increasing its audience is Radio 4 which reached its biggest audience since records began in 1999 (11.55m listeners a week).

The station's Today programme saw a surge with 7.66m listeners during the year's second quarter compared to 7.13m just three months earlier.

Bob Shennan, director of BBC radio and music, described the BBC's figures as "fantastic news for radio, illustrating its enduring appeal in a crowded digital marketplace."

Elsewhere, LBC saw an audience increase following the sacking of Katie Hopkins with 2m listeners a week between April and June 2017, compared to 1.7m over the same period in 2016, as did Classic FM which has seen a weekly increase of more than 200,000.

Meanwhile, Kiss saw a drop from 2.1m to 2m in the last quarter.

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