The Chris Moyles Show
| File:ChrisMoylesLarge.jpg Moyles standing in front of the BBC Radio 1 Logo | |
| Genre | Comedy, Talk |
|---|---|
| Running time | 3 hours (approximately) |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 1 |
| Written by | Chris Moyles Comedy Dave |
| Executive producer(s) | Rhys Hughes |
| Recording studio | London |
| Original release | January 5 2004 – Present |
| Podcast | iTunes |
The Chris Moyles Show is the current BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in the UK, and has been since Chris Moyles became the station's breakfast show presenter in 5 January 2004. From 2004-2006, the show was broadcast from 6.55am to 10am each weekday, but since January 2007 starts from 7.00am. The show serves as a low intelligence alternative to the much better Christian O'Connell breakfast show on [Virgin Radio].
Show format
Moyles' show lasts three hours, with news and sport read half hourly between just before 07:00 (unusually for radio, the news leads up to the top of the hour and the show proper begins at exactly 07:00 with the BBC Pips) and 08:30, and again at 09:30. A typical half hour segment contains between ten to fifteen minutes of chat, discussing the team members' lives, Radio 1's features, music or popular culture. There are regular celebrity guest interviews usually between 08:00 and 09:00, with the occasional live music performance and frequent first exclusive plays of new single releases. The show relies on a number of on air contributions from background staff in a variation of the "zoo" format, with members of the production team, news and sport readers and other studio guests contributing throughout the show.
Current features
Popular recurring features that appear on the morning version of the Chris Moyles show include:
- BB Aled - When a series of Big Brother or Celebrity Big Brother UK is ongoing, Aled reviews everything that has been happening in the Big Brother house along with his pre-recorded interviews with the most recently evicted housemate.
- Car Park Catchphrase - Possibly the best known competition on the show. Two listeners inside their car have to beep their horn to guess a catchphrase, which is hosted using voice samples from the Northern Irish comedian and original Catchphrase presenter, Roy Walker. Even though simple catchphrases are used and carefully chosen obvious clues provided by Moyles, many callers fail to spot the correct phrase. The competition went off air at Christmas 2005, but returned to the show on 8 January 2007.
- Guess Who - An occasional feature in which team members attempt to guess the name of a celebrity that one member has recently seen, using yes or no questions.
- One Road Travel- A parody of the travel news of local radio shows. Dominic originally read out travel news from one random road each day. Since January 2006 the roads have been chosen by listeners. Various facts about the nominated listener are detailed along with a report about their road. Became known as 'New and Improved One Road Travel' from January 2006 and 'Betterer-Than-Ever One Road Travel' from January 2007.
- Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz - One of Chris's friends Rob DJ presents a quiz he writes in a pub in their native Leeds every Monday evening, with the team reconstructing the quiz on Tuesday morning along with listener participation. Running totals of each team member's recent performances are kept and analysed. Since 2007, the quiz has been an interactive feature, with listeners able to play along on their mobile phones via WAP.
- Tedious Link - by Comedy Dave - Carried forward from Moyles's old afternoon show, Comedy Dave would link one record played in the previous programme to another record using cleverly written facts to connect the names of the titles or artists. The record is (normally)played at precisely 9:00am, introduced by the famous BBC Pips, and afterwards the link between the records is reviewed for mistakes - which is usually found to be the case. The theme music to the former Channel 4 TV show 'Treasure Hunt' accompanies this review.
- Half-Time in the Show - following the tedious link, the team has a 'halftime'. Although nearly two thirds through the show, the title reflects the fact that the peak audience has now turned off and the team uses the opportunity to chat more informally to the remaining listeners. Comedy Dave begins the link shouting "Let's get ready to Ramble!", in the style of boxing announcer Michael Buffer shouting "Let's get ready to Rumble!". In the UK, the word ramble can be used to describe a long discussion with no real point or coherence.
- Rate the Guest - A guest is rated out of 10 by Chris, Dave, Rachel and Aled, and since 2007, Dominic and Carrie. The individual scores are then added up to make a grand total. In recent time, guests have been marked to 2 decimal places to make it harder for Dave, who adds them up to get and accurate total (his arithmetic is hilariously shaky).
- Brand New Cheesy Song As of January 2007 the show opens at 7am with a song which currently has three sets of lyrics, although it keeps the same melody and always includes the line "Good Morning, from the Chris Moyles Show, International Radio 1". In April 2007 Moyles said that he was writing a new set of lyrics for the opening theme.
Past features
Features that have appeared on the morning version of the show in the past include:
- Buzz Off - Chris would bring a song from his home to play out on air while listeners texted in to decide if they wanted the song to stop early.
- Celebrity Tarzan - A pre-recorded celebrity does an impression of Tarzan and listeners phone in to guess who it is, the winners receive CDs and other assorted show detritus. Each voice continues to be used until the correct celebrity is guessed.
- Celebrity Two Word Tango ("borrowed" from Dick and Dom in da Bungalow) - although reprised in 2007.
- Chicks Win Ticks competition for women to win tickets to various things
- Reverse-A-Word - Later made into a one-off special by Challenge TV
- Sting Ring (became Bing Ring for Christmas 2005) - Moyles would wake up a listener by playing Sting songs down the phone. In Christmas 2005, Bing Crosby songs were used instead.
- Whattity What A short-lived spoof of Blankety Blank
- Yesterday's Weather - Dominic would review where the warmest, wettest and as such happened in the UK the previous day.
- Beep Beep Busters - A replacement of Car Park Catch-Phrase in 2006, which alluded to Bob Holness's Blockbusters, where callers are still in a car, but answer questions instead of guessing catchphrases.
Current team members
Of the current team members, Comedy Dave has worked with Chris the longest; though since 2004 he has also presented his own show along side Mark "Chappers" Chapman.
- Chris Moyles - Host of the show
- Comedy Dave - 'Director Of Comedy'; general assistant to Chris
- Rachel Jones - Producer since 2003
- Aled Haydn Jones (BB Aled) - Day Producer and Big Brother Reporter. He had previously worked as the Assistant Producer
- Dominic Byrne - Newsreader since the move to mornings. He also does regular celebrity interviews and presents the 'One Road Travel' feature.
- Carrie Davis - Sportsreader since 2004
- Rob DJ - Chris' friend from Leeds who is the author and presenter of Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz in Chris's Local Pub in Leeds.
- Longman - Chris' best friend he was once a sandwich shop owner now he's training to become personal trainer
- Roy Walker host of Car Park Catchphrase in pre-recorded form.
Supported football teams
| Team Member | Supported Club |
|---|---|
| Chris Moyles | Leeds United |
| Comedy Dave | Everton |
| Rachel Jones | Kidderminster Harriers |
| Dominic Byrne | Liverpool |
| Carrie Davis | Chelsea |
Guests
Moyles has had a wide array of celebrity guests on his show. Notable appearances include the Will Smith, Halle Berry, Kiefer Sutherland, Patsy Kensit, Kelly Osbourne, Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Girls Aloud, Ricky Gervais, Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Russell Brand, Jimmy Carr, Beyoncé, Gordon Ramsay, Gwen Stefani, Take That, Jools Holland, Charlotte Church, Billie Piper, Jack Osbourne, P Diddy, Keith Allen, Lily Allen, Jack Black, Jon Culshaw, 50 Cent, Magic Numbers, Sir Geoff Hurst, Ozzy Osbourne, Will Young, Robbie Williams, Noel Gallagher, Drew Barrymore, Joss Stone, David Baddiel, Frank Skinner, and footballer David Beckham.
A long running gag throughout certain interviews is for Chris to demonstrate and describe the hydraulic desk in the studio. This is usually done if the team deem the visiting guest to be less than entertaining or boring.
In 2006, everytime a celebrity guest appeared on the show, Chris, Dave, Rachel and Aled rated them out of 10, giving an overall score out of 40, and all of the results were put onto the leaderboard. Patsy Kensit topped the board with a respectable 39/40. Bottom of the board was P Diddy, with 9/40.
Since 2007, Dom and Carrie also join in "rating the guest" - giving each celebrity guest a total out of 60. Currently, Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne are top of the leaderboard, with 57.58/60, and Joss Stone is bottom, with 27.2/60.
Complaints
There have been a number of complaints in the last two years about the Chris Moyles Show. These have included complaints of bad language, racism, homophobia, transphobia and sexism. Some of which have been upheld by Ofcom. Many of these complaints and controversies have resulted from the relatively adult content of Moyles' show in relation to its breakfast time slot.
Listener figures
Since taking over from Sara Cox in January 2004 the show's audience has increased by over 1 million listeners, to over 7 million weekly listeners in October 2005, according to RAJAR figures[1]. Since the show began it has risen to become the most popular radio show for young people in London, overtaking Johnny Vaughan's Capital Radio show, beating it by 3,000 listeners in October 2005.
It remains the second most popular show on The BBC's Listen Again Service, behind The Archers.
In June 2005 Radio 1 signed an agreement with Sirius Satellite Radio to broadcast much of their content in America, with the Chris Moyles show as one of the main selling points (with a suitable time delay ensuring it remains a 'breakfast' show).
In 2005, as part of the BBC's podcasting trial, a weekly podcast entitled 'The Best of Moyles' is released. Originally updated every Thursday and now Friday as from January 2006, the podcast features highlights from the 5 previous broadcasts. It featured as the most downloaded podcast in the UK iTunes Music Store for much of 2005; however in December 2005 it was overtaken by the Ricky Gervais Podcast.The podcast is quite popular and is downloaded by over a quarter of a million people worldwide.
In 2006, the show won a gold Sony Radio Award for the best entertainment show. Upon accepting the award, in typical Moyles fashion, Chris started his acceptance speech with "About fucking time!"
The release of the latest RAJAR listening figures on 3 August 2006 cemented Moyles' popularity in the slot - he had added a further 470,000 listeners to the Breakfast Show, taking the average listenership up to 6.79 million.
In January 2007, The Chris Moyles Show further increased its listening figures by 10,000 and seems to be going from strength to strength.
On May 10 2007, RAJAR figures confirmed that Moyles had increased his listening figures to 7.06m, breaking the seven million barrier for the first time. However te estiimated total listening figure is over 8 million because the survey does not count under 12's. BBC Radio 1 now has 10.55m listeners overall.