Holmes attended the competition last month, according to multiple reports. He believes his bar experience helped him get into TV by bringing out his personality and teaching him how to speak to people. According to Daily Express - Showbiz, Eamonn Holmes described how it taught him to be more relaxed with a TV audience and how to talk to people in television, calling it amazing.
His first TV stint was in 1979 as a reporter and host for Ulster Television (UTV) in Northern Ireland. He moved to the BBC in 1986. Holmes then moved to GMTV in 1993 and stayed until 2005.
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 also worked on Sky News, BBC show Jet Set, and occasional stints on GMB. Holmes grew up working in a pub, though the name of the pub has not been confirmed. He kept his pub job in the early days of his TV career until his boss encouraged him to focus on TV.
According to Daily Express - Showbiz, Eamonn Holmes described how the head barman questioned his dual roles, and that was his last night in the bar. The specific date he left the pub job remains unknown.
But does this TV business ever last?
That was my last night in the bar.
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 bit strange, I didn't know anybody who was in television or presenting, but that's what happened.