The GB News presenter continued working in a pub even after landing his first TV role at 21
Eamonn Holmes is now a presenter on GB News(Image: GBNews)
GB News host Eamonn Holmes has enjoyed a career in broadcasting for decades but the Irish TV host admits that he almost never gave up his first-ever job.
The TV veteran had such a fondness for his evening job that he continued it well into the early stages of his blossoming career, until his boss eventually urged him to concentrate solely on his television aspirations.
His first television appearance came in 1979 as a reporter and presenter for Ulster Television (UTV) in Northern Ireland, and his career has gone from strength to strength ever since.
Yet Eamonn was so anxious that his TV career might suddenly dry up that he was determined to keep pulling pints while he still could, and he was in absolutely no rush to abandon his bar job before he finally did relinquish the evening role to dedicate himself fully to his television career.
Speaking to the Express. at the Young Chef, Young Waiter, Young Mixologist awards where he was a judge, Eamonn looked back on his career and said: “Nobody in the UK had been given tea time programmes at 21, so when I did, it went in my favour.
“But I was working in a pub, and the head barman said to me, ‘what is this? You serve them up the news until seven o’clock and then you’re in here at 7.30pm’.”
He revealed that his response to his manager at the time was: “But does this TV business ever last?”
The barman boldly assured Eamonn it would, invited him for a drink, and encouraged him to chase his dreams, with Eamonn saying: “That was my last night in the bar.”
Eamonn credits his bar work with helping him break into television, claiming it drew out his personality and showed him how to connect with people.
He said: “It taught me to be more relaxed with a TV audience and how to talk to people in television, so that was amazing. It was a bitb strange, I didn’t know anybody who was in television or presenting, but that’s what happened.”
His breakthrough in Ireland was merely the beginning of his broadcasting journey, transitioning to the BBC in 1986 and subsequently GMTV in 1993, where he remained until 2005, taking on a host of other television roles along the way, including stints at Sky News, BBC show Jet Set, and periodic appearances on GMB.
Eamonn’s latest venture has seen him comfortably settled at GB News, where he fronts the breakfast show.
GB News’s Breakfast Show is on weekdays at 6am