Why is Julia Hartley-Brewer so grumpy? Is it her Rajar figures?

“Genuinely gutted not to have made it on to the New European’s The Shit List 2023”, TalkTV’s Julia Hartley-Brewer posted on Twitter/X last year.

This year, after actually making the list (you can see who joined her here) she’s fuming: “Absolutely tragic” is her verdict on the Shit List 2024, in all good newsagents from Thursday! No pleasing some people!

What’s behind this turn for the worse in the normally ebullient Hartley-Brewer’s humour?

Could it be her recent piss-poor performance in the latest Rajar audience report, showing her 10am slot is down an astonishing 15% quarter to quarter, making her one of the station’s worst performers alongside Ian Collins.

Rats in a Sack hears Hartley-Brewer is also floundering in the all-important YouTube stakes where she struggles to get more than a handful of thousands to tune in, and that’s on a good morning.

Coincidentally, the response to those audience figures from her bosses at TalkTV? “Absolutely tragic,” an insider says.