Radio 1 presenter Nick Grimshaw has suffered the ignominy of attracting the lowest listener ratings for the station’s breakfast show since recent records began.

The show has been fronted by Grimshaw for the last five years, and in the three months up to the end of September 2017 pulled in an average of 5.3 million listeners per morning over the age of 10. However, the programme attracted 7 million listeners when the 33 year old took over the hot seat in September 2012.

The figure is officially the lowest that the show has attracted since official body RAJAR began collecting such data in 1992, and it’s also thought to be the station’s lowest audience figure since the breakfast programme debuted five decades ago in 1967.

Nick GrimshawNick Grimshaw has presented Radio 1's breakfast show since 2012

In spite of the disappointing figures, BBC sources are minded to put a positive spin on it, with a spokesperson telling The Guardian on Wednesday evening (October 25th) that the news was still positive, as Radio 1’s overall figures saw a slight increase from 9.58 million listeners to 9.6 million.

More: Nick Grimshaw admits he’s “rubbish at my job” sometimes

“It is still the number one breakfast show for young people. But they don’t consume as much traditional radio as they used do,” the source said.

Ben Cooper, the controller of Radio 1, also said in an official statement that the station is also enjoying its record numbers in online ratings.

“As we celebrate our amazing 50th anniversary, Radio 1 continues to be the most relevant youth brand in the UK today, with 10.55m weekly listeners (aged 10 and over), a record 5 million subscribers on YouTube, and 9.45 million subscribers on social media,” Cooper said. “Having just been crowned National Radio Station of the year, 1Xtra further grows on its one million plus listenership and sees the highest ever audience for the Breakfast Show.”

More: Orlando Bloom explains his use of the word ‘pikey’ in Radio 1 interview with Nick Grimshaw