Jedward sent a farewell message
The leaving tributes continued with a voice note from Jedward.
They compared Scott and Chris departing Radio 1 to Geri Halliwell leaving the Spice Girls and insisted it was not really the end.
An additional contribution arrived from Italy with an operatic version of “Time to Say Goodbye”.
It was exactly the scale of farewell one would expect from Jedward.
Radio 1 Games inspired a chart competition
The station was running its Radio 1 Games, full of deliberately oversized sports-day challenges.
Scott and Chris decided the Official Chart needed its own Olympic event.
That meant bringing in Jack Saunders, one of the presenters who covered the chart when Scott was away.
The situation immediately became more emotionally loaded than intended.
Scott had spent years making the chart one of his defining Radio 1 jobs.
Jack represented the next generation.
They insisted there was mutual respect.
Then they made them compete anyway.
Round one tested fake breaking chart news
Each presenter was given an absurd chart scenario and had to deliver it as if it were real.
Jack was asked to introduce a fictional BTS collaboration with *Love Island*’s Andrew Le Page.
Scott had to announce a new sea shanty from Nathan Evans so powerful that Harry Styles had supposedly delayed his own release.
Both treated the nonsense with proper chart seriousness.
The joke worked because the delivery style was completely authentic even when the stories were impossible.
It came down to the number-one reveal
The final round was the most important skill of all: building tension before announcing the UK’s number one.
The fictional contenders included Drake, Robbie Savage, Richard Madeley and Sigma.
Jack produced a tight, dramatic reveal.
Scott went longer, threw in every possible piece of Official Chart branding and created an increasingly elaborate backstory for the winning song.
Producer Amy admitted he had probably gone on too long.
It did not matter.
After combining her judgment with listener reaction, Scott won the Official Chart Olympics.
The old champion had held off the younger challenger.
For now.
The Who Game went after another era
The programme then returned to the Who Game.
Suggestions included bring-and-buy sales, Rosetta Stone, Grumpy Cat, Don’t Drive Me For A Week To Be Number One, celebrity singing birthday cards, the MySpace Top Eight, Silly String and telling somebody they had “just lost the game”.
Scott incorrectly assumed Rosetta Stone was an actual person before learning it was the language-learning company named after the ancient artefact.
The discovery only encouraged further unnecessary research into how rich “Rosetta” might have been.
A final medal for the chart host
For a presenter preparing to leave Radio 1, winning a completely invented Olympic discipline against his likely chart successor was probably the correct amount of closure.
The Official Chart still belonged to Scott Mills.
At least until Friday.
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