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Eamonn Holmes

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Eamonn Holmes on Sky News

Eamonn Holmes (b. December 3, 1959) is a Northern Irish television presenter based in England.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Eamonn Holmes was born in Belfast into a Roman Catholic family; he has four brothers. He has three children, Declan, Niall and Rebecca by his first wife, the former Gabrielle Holmes.

He also has one child, son, Jack Alex Holmes, with his current partner, Ruth Langsford, with whom he resides in Surrey. Holmes is not yet able to marry Langsford in the Church as his first marriage hasn't yet been annulled by the Sacra Rota; he has been quoted in the papers as expressing his impatience with the long, arduous process.

[edit] Career

In the 1980s he presented the evening news programme Good Evening Ulster on Ulster Television and later in the 1980s Open Air on BBC1. He is to date best known for presenting GMTV from 1993 until 2005. He has also occasionally presented Songs of Praise.

He started at GMTV since it began in 1993. His relationship with co-host Anthea Turner, from June 1994 until December 1996, had its ups and downs, though was distinctly characterised by the frequent downs towards the end of the troubled breakfast-time partnership.

In early 1996, after publicly criticising Anthea and her pushy nature as Princess Tippy Toes, he gave an ultimatum to the GMTV management that they either sacked Anthea, or he would leave. They decided to sack Anthea {cite}. Her replacement was Fiona Phillips. One interview which was memorable for the wrong reasons occurred when the monosyllabic David Blaine came in on 29 August 2001 ([1]).

Holmes left GMTV after asking for a pay-rise of more than £500,000 a year for three days a week, which was refused after the management had noticed that when Eamonn and Fiona were on holiday, the ratings showed no difference.

Holmes joined Sky News in October 2005 to present the new-look Sunrise programme. Other commitments include the long-running National Lottery programme Jet Set, a Five Live programme on Saturday mornings, a column in a national newspaper and presenting on London radio station Magic 105.4 FM.

In September and October 2005 he appeared as a celebrity contestant in Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, progressing through to Sale of the Century before getting knocked out. Currently he can also be seen presented the BBC2 early evening quiz show, Sudo-Q, that combined contestants' abilities to complete a Sudoku puzzle and to answer general knowledge questions.

In December 2005 he opened the eulogies at the funeral of football legend George Best. He is a lifelong fan of Manchester United. Eamonn Holmes' autobiography was released in May 2006; he is also expected to host a new teatime quiz show on ITV entitled The Rich List in the near future.

He has been parodied in the magazine Viz in relation to his weight and an implied predilection for pies. He most recently features in the August issue of Viz. Even so, he appeared in their unsuccessful 2004 film, Fat Slags.

In Feb 2004, Eamonn co-hosted the BBC1 show Would You Pass The 11+, produced by Wild Rover Productions.

On 20 May 2006, Eamonn's National Lottery programme, Jet Set, was invaded by Fathers 4 Justice protestors just as the lottery draws were about to take place. Holmes earned some media criticism for hiding behind his female co-presenter rather than confronting the protesters. Nevertheless, the incident was resolved quickly and did not impinge upon the immovable 8pm start time of the subsequent Eurovision Song Contest.

As of July 2006, he has been the host of the Sunday mid-morning show (10am-2pm) on the Magic Radio network, as part of the station's new look, in which Dave Lee Travis is also playing a part.

Holmes began filming The Rich List, a new game show for Fox TV, in September 2006. It was his first TV hosting role in the USA, however it was pulled from the schedule after only one episode due to its bad performance of only 4.14 million viewers ([2]). He is due to present another new game show, Reversal of Fortune, for the BBC during the last quarter of 2006 (see[3]).

[edit] Publications

His autobiography is called This is MY Life, a reference to another famous Irish Eamonn - Eamonn Andrews. It reveals some of what occurred behind the scenes during his tenure at GMTV, particularly regarding his stormy relationship with Anthea Turner.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Eamonn_Holmes"
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