{"id":514354,"date":"2026-04-05T14:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/514354\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T14:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:35:12","slug":"boltons-vernon-kay-tipped-as-favourite-to-replace-scott-mills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/514354\/","title":{"rendered":"Bolton&#8217;s Vernon Kay tipped as favourite to replace Scott Mills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/news\/25989470.bbc-says-new-information-led-scott-mills-sacking\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mills<\/a> was abruptly taken off air and last hosted his show on Tuesday March 24, signing off with: \u201cSee you tomorrow.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The BBC confirmed on Monday that the 53-year-old is no longer contracted to work with the company.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The sacking has left a vacancy at BBC Radio 2\u2019s Breakfast Show just over a year after Mills took over from Zoe Ball as host.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/topics\/vernon-kay\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kay<\/a>, who hosts a mid-morning show on Radio 2, is currently the favourite with bookmaker William Hill to replace Mills.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Last month, the station\u2019s head Helen Thomas said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theboltonnews.co.uk\/news\/25469224.paddy-mcguinness-vernon-kay-co-present-bbc-children-need\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Vernon Kay<\/a> continues to be \u201cthe most listened to show on UK radio\u201d, attracting 6.7 million listeners each week.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Veteran DJ Gary Davies, who unexpectedly started hosting Mills\u2019 breakfast show last Wednesday, was also tipped as a possible replacement.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Davies did not address the reason for Mills\u2019 absence and just told listeners: \u201cMorning, Gary in for Scott.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  OJ Borg, who hosts Radio 2\u2019s weekday overnight show, was another of the station\u2019s presenters who feature in the bookmaker\u2019s list.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  William Hill also named broadcasters Rylan Clark and Clara Amfo as potential replacements.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Spokesman Lee Phelps said: \u201cWith Scott Mills\u2019 departure from BBC Radio 2 confirmed, attention has quickly turned to who takes on one of the biggest roles in UK radio.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cOur early betting has Vernon Kay out in front at 6\/4, but right behind him is Gary Davies at 5\/2 and OJ Borg at 11\/4, having previously hosted the show.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cOther potential candidates include Rylan Clark (7\/2), Clara Amfo (4\/1) and Tony Blackburn (6\/1), followed by Strictly Come Dancing and Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman (8\/1).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cJoe Wilkinson and Alex Horne are 10\/1 and 20\/1 respectively to replace Mills on one of the flagship BBC Radio shows.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mills was abruptly taken off air and last hosted his show on Tuesday March 24, signing off with:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-514354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}