Nicholas Peter Andrew "Nick" Grimshaw (born 14 August 1984), also known as Grimmy, is an English television and former radio presenter, podcaster and author. He became known for having hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1. He is also known as a television presenter for his Channel 4 roles in T4 and The Album Chart Show. In 2015, he was a judge on the twelfth series of The X Factor.
Early life
Grimshaw was born in Oldham, Greater Manchester and grew up there. He attended the University of Liverpool between 2002 and 2005, studying Communication and Media Studies, but failed his final year, graduating with a DipHE rather than a bachelor's degree. During his studies at the University of Liverpool, Grimshaw was also a member of the University's student radio station, ICON Radio (now Liverpool Guild Student Media).
Career
Radio
Grimshaw joined BBC Radio 1 in September 2007, presenting the BBC's youth strand Switch with close friend and fellow DJ Annie Mac. He hosted the show for 9 months solo while Mac hosted a weekend lunchtime slot.
From October 2008 to May 2009, Grimshaw hosted Radio 1's Weekend Breakfast Show. Grimshaw then went on to present the 10pmmidnight slot on BBC Radio 1 on 1 June 2009, following the departure of Colin Murray. He regularly joked about how long his position at BBC Radio 1 would last and whether he would actually be able to complete his long list of "1000 Albums Everyone Says You Should Listen To But We Only Have Time To Play One Track So Here It Is" which was a nightly feature on his show. He managed to reach number 369, before he left for the breakfast show.
On 11 July 2012 it was announced that Grimshaw would replace the long-standing Chris Moyles as host of Radio 1 Breakfast. The last live show was broadcast on 12 September 2012, although the last show broadcast under the show's name was a pre-recorded episode entitled "The 1000 Albums Show". His first breakfast show programme was on 24 September 2012.
In November 2012, Grimshaw attracted criticism from Magic Radio breakfast presenter Neil Fox for comments he made about Radio 1's decision to omit Robbie Williams's "Candy" from its A-List playlist – reportedly due to being "too old" for the station's target demographic. Some days later, Grimshaw was in tabloid headlines when the papers in question claimed he refused to promote Rihanna's latest album because she cancelled an interview with him – a claim which Grimshaw denied, noting that his snub was intended to be "tongue in cheek".
On 24 October 2013, it was reported that Grimshaw's Breakfast Show had one million fewer listeners than Moyles' and that its audience figures were the worst for the station in over a decade, with BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 all beating it in the ratings. At the time, Grimshaw's show was close to the record low of 5.5 million listeners, set by Sara Cox in 2003, toward the end of her three-year tenure hosting the show. In February 2014, the Breakfast Show recorded an enhancement of more than 700,000 listeners, which set the average number of listeners per week to 6.3 million. However, on 15 March 2014, it was reported that Grimshaw had lost another 510,000 listeners, for a weekly total of 5.78 million. The BBC claimed that this was part of the goal to attract younger listeners, while shedding the over-25s.
In March 2014, he completed a twelve-hour bicycle ride for Sport Relief. The event raised more than £115,000. Later that year, he also took part in the Clash of the Titans event as part of John Bishop's team Team Bishop.
In May 2015, Grimshaw's Breakfast Show fell to 5.5 million listeners a week, becoming tied with Sara Cox's show for the lowest number of listeners in Radio 1's history. The station controller Ben Cooper congratulated Grimshaw saying, "I'm pleased that Grimmy is doing what I've asked of him by keeping his young audience happy and scaring off the over-30s.". In August 2016, listener figures were reported to have dropped to 5.4 million, down 400,000 year-on-year, and making it the lowest listened to breakfast show in the station's history.
In July 2017 the BBC confirmed that Grimshaw's salary was in the £350,000 – £399,999 bracket.
In October 2017, Grimshaw's Breakfast Show fell to 4.93 million listeners a week, the lowest listening figures for BBC Radio 1's breakfast show since records began. Controller Ben Cooper defended the stats and said it was still "the most relevant youth brand in the UK today".