Last week Nick Grimshaw joined Rita Ora in being revealed as one of the two new judges on this years The X Factor alongside Simon Cowell and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini. What followed was an immediate backlash from tabloids and thousands of twitter users. Comments such as ‘He’s never written a record?‘ and ‘What can he even bring to the show?‘ infiltrated the headlines and also my Twitter feed.
Don’t write him off yet
Since joining Radio 1 and becoming the host of the Breakfast Show he has lost a large amount of his listenership with the show having the lowest audience since succeeding Chris Moyles 3 years ago. But what is wrong with that? Grimshaw was brought into Radio 1 to try and make the listenership of the show young again with the target listenership set at 16-29 years of age. If this meant losing the over 30s who do not care for his talk of Tumblr or his latest celebrity party this was the way to do it.
Bad news for Radio 1 and Nick Grimshaw, but good news for Radio 4 Extra in latest ratings figs http://t.co/MKxJCfk0Yp pic.twitter.com/SNjbBtbDk7
— Radio Times (@RadioTimes) May 21, 2015
This doesn’t mean his show is a failure. He has managed to hold onto a strong 5.5 million listenership who are engaged in his show and are responsible for many of the top trends on twitter each day. He is in hot demand these days with it being hard to not hear or see him somewhere across radio and TV.
His radio show is always full with A list celebrities, many that he himself is friends with. Along with this his show makes sure it caters to his audience. With the rise of the Youtubers Nick has made sure to secure interviews with names such as Alfie Deyes that his young audience are eagerly waiting to listen to.
You only have to check his Instagram to see the amount of A list events he attends and the huge names he hangs out with. Along with this rumours spread last week that it was his influence that swayed Rita Ora to leave The Voice for The X Factor.
Yes his radio show may have lost a lot of listeners but Nick is still a charismatic, hardworking presenter who knows what his audience want to hear. He is catering for the young audience that he has been encouraged to speak for.
Too many people are quick to criticise Nick Grimshaw for his radio show and his now appointment in the new X Factor judging role. He may not have had a number 1 record but he knows more about what young people want to listen to, what will get air time and sell records than most of us.
What do you think? Is Grimshaw a right choice? Have your say in the comments section below.
