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Look up presenter or host in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A presenter, or host (sometimes hostess, in feminine form), is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies (also MC, emcee, or host) is a person that hosts or presents a show.^[1] In films, a presenter (but not a host) is a usually well-known executive producer credited with introducing a film or filmmaker to a larger audience. In broadcast media, especially British, a presenter is the person who hosts, narrates, presents, or takes the main role in the program.

[edit] Television presenter

A television presenter is a person who introduces or hosts television programmes. Nowadays it is common for minor celebrities in other fields to take on this role, but there are also a number of people who have made their name solely within the field of presenting, particularly within children's television series to become a television personality.

Some presenters may double as an actor, model, singer, comedian etc. Others may be subject matter experts, such as scientists or politicians, serving as presenters for a programme about their field of expertise (for instance, David Attenborough). Some are celebrities who have made their name in one area, then leverage their fame to get involved in other areas. Examples of this latter group include British comedian Michael Palin who now presents programmes about travel (such as Around the World in 80 Days), and Alan Alda, who has presented Scientific American Frontiers for over a decade.

The term is also used in other countries, such as Ireland. In the USA, such a person is typically called a host or an MC (Master of Ceremonies). There are many most popular television personalities in Nepal. For example: Bikash Thapa Chhetri, Bijay Kumar Pandey and Bhusan Dahal are the most popular.

Radio presenter[link]

Broadly speaking, a radio presenter (often radio personality) is the same as a television presenter, except that they present radio programs instead of television programs. Big name presenters include Scott Mills, Tony Blackburn, Dale Winton, Steve Wright, Chris Moyles, Howard Stern, and Hamish and Andy.

News presenter[link]

Sports presenter[link]

A sports commentator (also sports announcer, sports broadcaster, sportscaster, or sports presenter) is a type of journalist on radio and/or television who specializes in reporting or commentating on sporting events. Sportscasting is often done live.

Weather presenter[link]

A weather presenter is a type of journalist on television who specializes in presenting weather forecasts.

References[link]

Davina McCall
McCall at the BAFTA Awards, April 2009
Born	Davina Lucy Pascale McCall[1] 16 October 1967 (1967-10-16) (age 44)[2] Wimbledon, South West London, England[2]
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	Anglo-French
Occupation	Broadcaster, actress
Years active	1992–present
Television	God's Gift Don't Try This at Home Streetmate Big Brother Davina Got to Dance The Million Pound Drop Live The Biggest Loser Long Lost Family
Spouse	Andrew Leggett (1997–1999, divorced) Matthew Robertson (2000–present)
Children	2 daughters, 1 son
Parents	Andrew McCall Florence Koch (née Hennion, deceased)
Relatives	Célestin Hennion (great-grandfather)
Website
officialdavina.com

Davina Lucy Pascale McCall (born 16 October 1967) is an English television presenter, currently hosting Channel 4's game show Million Pound Drop Live and Sky1's reality talent show Got to Dance. She is best known as the presenter of reality series Big Brother during its run on Channel 4 between 1999 and 2010. Having fronted the shows weekly live eviction shows every summer since the beginning, she decided not to return as host after it was dropped by Channel 4 and relaunched by Channel 5 the following year.

After a difficult childhood, by her early twenties McCall had pursued various jobs including solo singer. Having recovered from a drug problem, she embarked on a career in television with a first job presenting for satellite music channel MTV in 1992. After further work on terrestrial channels she became a household name thanks to Big Brother, while also continuing to work with other hosting vehicles on various channels, from game shows to talent shows. From 2005 she has also been a regular co-presenter for the Comic Relief annual telethons.

Departures from presenting into other television roles, through a sitcom, a documentary series and fronting her own chat show, have all proven to be unsuccessful, and beyond Big Brother she has continued in the main as a presenter on Channel 4, ITV and Sky.

Early career[link]

McCall's first career was as a singer. McCall had been performing in a band while still at school. The band went under the name Foghorn. By age 19 she had decided to pursue a professional career as a solo artist, assisted by her then boyfriend Eric Clapton who produced her demo music disc.^[3][4]

Dissatisfied with near misses in the music industry, McCall gave up singing and took a job at Models 1 on the men's desk as a booker. Later she ran a restaurant for two years before a brief spell in Paris as a Moulin Rouge style cabaret performer. On her return to London she worked on the nightclub scene as a hostess.^[5] Work in this period also included an appearance as a dancer in the video for the 1991 Kylie Minogue single Word Is Out, wearing a striped sweater and beret in a nod to her French ancestry.

Presenting[link]

[edit] Before Big Brother

In 1992 McCall was hired as a presenter on Ray Cokes' Most Wanted on MTV Europe. In 1995 she went on to host the ITV late night game show God's Gift and in 1998 to present the cult Channel 4 dating show Streetmate. From 1998 she co-hosted the Sky TV show Prickly Heat with Julian Clary and presented the ITV game show Don't Try This at Home!.

[edit] The Big Brother years

McCall was chosen as the inaugural presenter of the first series of Channel 4's reality television show Big Brother, in which 15 housemates entered a sealed house for up to 9 weeks, in which their every move would be filmed and then broadcast as a daily highlights show. McCall hosted the weekly live eviction show, where one contestant would be removed from the house, until the last housemate became the winner. McCall also hosted the celebrity version Celebrity Big Brother, whose first series ran for 8 days in March 2001. Days before the celebrity series she also hosted the 2000 BRIT Awards.

McCall continued to present other shows in the Big Brother period. When ITV's game show Don't Try This at Home! ended in 2001, she continued with that channel presenting series such as the talent show Popstars: The Rivals and game show The Vault (1st series) in 2002, the talent/reality series Reborn in the USA in 2003 and the entertainment series Love on a Saturday Night in 2004. She also hosted the British Academy Television Awards 2004 for ITV, returning in in 2006.

McCall's performance on the sixth series final night of Big Brother in 2005 attracted press attention and some complaints for her treatment of housemate Makosi Musambasi.^[6][7] In December 2007, McCall presented a New Year's edition of Channel 4's The Friday Night Project, entitled "The Friday Night New Year Project 2007", alongside Alan Carr and Justin Lee-Collins.

By the 9th series of Big Brother in 2008, McCall was earning a reported £85,000 per episode.^[8] Responding to tabloid claims before the series that she was about to quit Big Brother she said, "I'm not leaving ... They would have to kill me before I'd stop doing it".^[9][10] The 9th series proved to be a low point however, becoming the least watched summer series in the show's history.

McCall became the regular presenter of the live Big Brother companion show Big Brother's Big Mouth for the tenth and eleventh series, after it was recast into an hour long show after the weekly live eviction show, having previously occupied the slot after each daily highlights show. In December 2009 McCall began hosting the Sky1 reality talent show Got To Dance.

[edit] Leaving Big Brother and beyond

With audience figures falling, Channel 4 decided that the eleventh series in Summer 2010 would be the last Big Brother broadcast on their channel, although the show's future was in the hands of the rights holder Endemol. After presenting her the seventh and last series of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2010, she fronted her eleventh and final regular edition over the Summer. As a finale to the series on Channel 4, McCall also presented the Ultimate Big Brother show, which started immediately after the regular series, and featured selected past regular and celebrity housemates.

Having made the decision to leave the show after the end of that series, when Channel 5 announced in April 2011 that they had secured the rights to relaunch Big Brother in Summer 2011, McCall confirmed she would not be returning as host. Stating she still believed the show had potential, she gave her backing to Emma Willis as her replacement.^[11] The winner of regular series 2 and Ultimate Big Brother Brian Dowling was ultimately chosen to take over Davina's role as presenter of the Channel 5 version.

In between the final celebrity and regular editions of Big Brother on Channel 4, McCall began presenting a new Channel 4 game show called The Million Pound Drop Live, and has continued to do so into 2012. Beyond the end of Big Brother on Channel 4 McCall also continued as host of Got To Dance on Sky1 into 2012. From January 2011 McCall has been co-host of the ITV reality weight loss game show The Biggest Loser from the start of the fourth series.^[12]

Other work[link]

Television[link]

In fictional television, in 2001 McCall appeared alongside Ed Byrne, Tristan Gemmill and Tameka Empson as the title character in Sam's Game, a Friends-style sitcom. Slammed by the critics, it aired in just one six-episode series. In self-portrayals, McCall has voiced the android Davina McCall in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "Bad Wolf", and in 2008 she played herself as both a human and a zombie in Dead Set, a five-part horror parody of Big Brother set in the house.

From early 2006 McCall also fronted her own prime-time chat show on BBC One called Davina, featuring guests such as Pierce Brosnan, Gordon Ramsay, Dawn French and Piers Morgan. Receiving scathing reviews and with viewing figures falling to below half of the 6 million watching The Bill on ITV1 at the same time, the show was axed in the April for not reaching expectations.

In documentary television, McCall has fronted Let's Talk Sex about sex education and how it's taught in the United Kingdom (one of the countries of Europe with the highest teenage pregnancy levels). She also published a companion book to the series. McCall has also appeared in a video for schools called "Watch Over Me," talking about her drug addiction and peer pressure. During 2005 she presented the BBC documentary series He's Having a Baby, in which she was to follow and advise eight young men who were to become first time fathers at various stages during the shows 10 week run. It received poor ratings.

Telethons[link]

Since 2005 McCall has been one of the co-presenters of the annual British charity telethons are organised by Comic Relief. Organised on a alternating comedy/sport theme and televised live in March, McCall has co-hosted Red Nose Days in 2005, 2007, 2009 & 2011, and for Sport Relief in 2006, 2008, 2010 & 2012. She has also presented or appeared on various related Comic Relief shows, including: The Record Breaker (1999), Naked Red Nose Ground Force in Practice and Say Pants to Poverty (2001), The Big Hair Do (2003) and Comic Relief Does Fame Academy (2005).

Other appearances[link]

On 5 July 2007, McCall was a panellist on the school's edition of the BBC's Question Time political panel show.

In 2010 McCall was subjected to Channel 4's version of the popular American practice of a 'comedy roast', in which a famous personality has to endure mocking by a host of celebrity friends in silence, only being allowed to deliver a rebuttal at the end. Davina McCall: A Comedy Roast featured roasts from Rich Hall, Debra Stephenson, Patrick Kielty, Ed Byrne, Jack Whitehall, Chris Moyles, Dermot O'Leary, Julian Clary, Fearne Cotton, Brian Dowling, Nikki Grahame, Sophie Reade, Brian Belo and Sam Pepper.^[13]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

McCall was born on 16 October 1967 in Wimbledon, London^[1][14] to Florence (née Hennion) and Andrew McCall,^[15] and at the age of three went to live with her paternal grandparents in Surrey after the break-up of her parents' marriage.^[16] Her French mother Florence – whom McCall has described as something of a "wild child" and later, specifically as "an alcoholic" – returned to Paris, and McCall saw her only when on holidays. Her relationship with her mother was a difficult one and she has said that her mother "should never have had kids" describing how she once left her, at the age of 12, in a nightclub on her own. She continued to see her father Andrew, a graphic designer, at weekends before moving in with him and his new wife Gaby when she was 13 years old.^[17]

McCall attended the St Catherine's School, Bramley in Guildford, Surrey and Godolphin and Latymer Girls School,^[18] an independent school in Hammersmith, West London. At secondary level, McCall studied for nine O levels and two A levels.

During her teens McCall developed the eating disorder anorexia. In the words of Hello Magazine, McCall's sunny disposition, one of her greatest assets as a TV presenter, stems from overcoming her fractured childhood and this eating disorder.^[5]

Family[link]

McCall is married to Matthew Robertson, presenter of Pet Rescue, with whom she has three children – two daughters, Holly Willow (born 22 September 2001, Hounslow, London) and Tilly Pippy (born 23 September 2003, Surrey), and a son, Chester Micky (born 14 September 2006, Surrey).^[19][20] Robertson is McCall's second husband; they were married on 29 June 2000 at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire. Her first marriage was to Andrew Leggett in 1997 in Westminster, London.^[19] McCall's pre-marital relationships included old family friend Eric Clapton.^[3][4] He also helped her when in early 20s she developed a drug problem; it was only after turning things around that she gained her own television show on MTV.^[5][15]

Ancestry[link]

McCall's ancestry was examined for a 2009 episode of Who Do You Think You Are?. With the help of historians Jean-Marc Berliere and Simon Kitson, McCall learned that she is the great-granddaughter of onetime Prefect of Police Célestin Hennion (1862–1915), and the great great great-granddaughter, on her father's side, of James Thomas Bedborough (1787–1860), a stonemason, councillor, Mayor, property developer, and entrepreneur, who worked on Windsor Castle and Upton Park in Slough. Participants in the show included Françoise Hennion (Hennion's granddaughter and McCall's mother's cousin) and Pierre, Hennion's son and McCall's grandfather. Pierre gave McCall his father's Royal Victorian Order medal. McCall met with Alfred Dreyfus's great-granddaughter, Yael Ruiz, after learning of the part her ancestor played in the Dreyfus affair.^[15][21]

Filmography[link]

• MTV Europe (1992)
• Eurotrash (1993) – Female Voice Dubber for the first series on Channel 4
• God's Gift (1995)
• Don't Try This at Home! (1998–2001)
• Streetmate (1998–2001)
• A Day in the life of the Shepherds (1999)
• BRIT Awards (2000), (2003),
• Big Brother (2000–10)
• Sam's Game (2001)
• Celebrity Big Brother (2001–2002, 2005–07, 2009–10)
• Comic Relief (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011)
• Oblivious (2001)
• The Vault (2002)
• Popstars: The Rivals (2002)
• Reborn in the USA (2003)
• Love on a Saturday Night (2004)
• BAFTA (2004)
• Doctor Who (2005) – Voice of Davinadroid in the episode Bad Wolf
• A Bear's Tail (2005) – Dave Ian McCall
• He's Having a Baby (2005)
• Davina (2006)
• BAFTA (2006)
• Sport Relief (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012)
• Let's Talk Sex (2007)
• Big Brother: On The Couch (2007)
• The Friday Night New Year Project (2007)
• Dead Set (2008) – A horror parody of Big Brother with McCall playing an undead version of herself.^[22]
• 4Music's Davina & Steve's 20 Big Ones (2008)
• Big Brother's Big Mouth (2008, 2009–10) – as a guest presenter for one week (2008) and then as main presenter during Big Brother 10, 11 and Ultimate Big Brother.
• Who Do You Think You Are? (2009) – as participant ^[15]
• Got to Dance (2010–present) ^[23]
• The Million Pound Drop (2010–present)
• Ultimate Big Brother (2010)
• The Biggest Loser (2011–present)
• Long Lost Family (2011–present)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Davina McCall at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Big Brother in the United Kingdom Big Brother Series Regular 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 Celebrity 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 Special Teen · Panto · Celebrity Hijack · Ultimate Winners Regular Craig Phillips · Brian Dowling · Kate Lawler · Cameron Stout · Nadia Almada · Anthony Hutton · Pete Bennett · Brian Belo · Rachel Rice · Sophie Reade · Josie Gibson · Aaron Allard-Morgan Celebrity Jack Dee · Mark Owen · Bez · Chantelle Houghton · Shilpa Shetty · Ulrika Jonsson · Alex Reid · Paddy Doherty · Denise Welch Special Paul Brennan · John Loughton · Brian Dowling Main presenters Current Marcus Bentley · Brian Dowling · Emma Willis · Alice Levine · Jamie East Former Davina McCall · George Lamb · Dermot O'Leary · Russell Brand · James Corden · Mathew Horne · Zezi Ifore · Jack Whitehall Related articles Endemol · John de Mol · Channel 4/E4 · Channel 5/5* · Controversy and criticism · Housemates · Celebrity housemates · Jade Goody · Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy · Dead Set · "Bad Wolf" (Doctor Who episode) Category ·  Commons

Clare Balding
Born	Clare Victoria Balding 1971 London, England
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	White British
Occupation	Sports presenter, journalist, jockey, TV presenter
Employer	BBC
Partner	Alice Arnold (2006–present)
Parents	Ian Balding Emma (née Hastings-Bass)

Clare Balding (born 1971 in Kingsclere, Hampshire^[1] is a BBC sports presenter, journalist and jockey.

Early life[link]

Balding's father was horse trainer and previously trained champion thoroughbred Mill Reef.^[2] She was educated at Downe House in Berkshire, where she was Head Girl and a contemporary of comedienne Miranda Hart.^[3] Initially she had applied to read law at Christ's College, Cambridge but failed her interview and realised it was not her first choice.^[2] She later successfully applied at Newnham College, Cambridge and read English.^[4] While at university she was President of the Cambridge Union Society in Easter 1992 and graduated in 1993 with a 2:1 honours degree.

In 1989 and 1990, Balding was a leading amateur flat jockey and Champion Lady Rider in 1990.

Broadcasting career[link]

She became a trainee with BBC National Radio in 1994, working on 5 Live, Radio 1 (presenting the sport on the Chris Evans Breakfast Show), Radio 2 and Radio 4. In 1995, she made her debut as a television presenter during Royal Ascot. She became BBC horse racing presenter in December 1997 after the retirement of Julian Wilson and has fronted coverage of the Grand National.

She has reported from four Olympic Games, for BBC Radio in Atlanta and for BBC Television in Sydney, Athens and Beijing. She has presented two Paralympic Games, the Winter Olympics from Turin and Vancouver as well as the Commonwealth Games from Melbourne and Delhi. She is the face of the BBC's rugby league coverage, having presented Grandstand from a Rugby League Challenge Cup semi-final, and having been so impressed by the vibrancy and physical challenge of the sport she asked to cover further rugby league events.

She also presents the Lord Mayor's Show as well as other live events for the BBC such as Trooping the Colour and New Year's Eve. In March 2010 she presented Channel Four's coverage of Crufts.^[5]

She also presents the walking programme Ramblings for BBC Radio 4 (where she also stands-in on the Saturday Live programme), and Wimbledon for 5 Live.

During the 2009 Grand National, Balding commented on winning jockey Liam Treadwell's teeth and suggested that he could "get them done" with his prize fund.^[6] The BBC received 1,477 complaints about the comment,^[7] leading to an apology from both the presenter and the BBC.

In 2010, Balding presented a BBC TV series that retraced some of Harold Briercliffe's British cycle tours.^[8]

Balding joined Chris Evans as co-host of Channel 4's Famous and Fearless in January 2011.^[9] The show has since been cancelled because of poor ratings.^[10]

In August 2011 Balding joined BBC's Countryfile, temporarily replacing Julia Bradbury while she was on maternity leave, she co-hosted the show with Matt Baker. Bradbury returned in February 2012.

From February to March 2012 she presented a programme on Radio Four called "Sport and the British". This was a thirty part series looking at the impact of sports on British life.

Writing[link]

Balding has written regular columns for The Observer, the Evening Standard and The Sporting Life. She has signed a deal with Viking Press to write an autobiography entitled My Animals and Other Family, which is due for publication in September 2012.^{[11] [12]}

Awards[link]

Balding was the Royal Television Society's "Sports Presenter of the Year" in 2003. In the same year, she won the "Racing Journalist of the Year Award" and has followed up with the award for "Racing Broadcaster of the Year".

Family and personal life[link]

Balding has close family links to horse racing: her father, Ian Balding, trained Mill Reef, 1971 winner of the Epsom Derby, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and her younger brother, Andrew Matthews Balding, trained Casual Look, the winner of the 2003 Epsom Oaks. The latter win led to a very emotional post-race interview with her brother. Furthermore, her grandfather was the trainer Peter Hastings-Bass and her maternal uncle the 17th Earl of Huntingdon former trainer to Queen Elizabeth II. Her maternal grandmother Priscilla is descended from the Earls of Derby.

In September 2006, she formalised her relationship with the BBC Radio 4 continuity announcer and newsreader Alice Arnold by entering into a civil partnership.^[13] They live in Chiswick, London.

On 29 May 2009, Balding announced that she had thyroid cancer. She told the Daily Mail newspaper that she had her thyroid gland removed and would have radioactive iodine treatment in July that year.^[14] She promised to be back on television covering the Epsom Derby, by the following Saturday. On 21 August 2009 she announced on her website the results from a post-treatment scan which showed the radioactive iodine had been successful with no signs of the thyroid cancer having spread anywhere else.

In July 2010, Balding made a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission over an article by writer A. A. Gill in The Sunday Times that she felt had mocked her sexuality and appearance^[15] and for which the newspaper refused to apologise.^[16] The PCC found in her favour, judging that AA Gill had "refer[red] to the complainant's sexuality in a demeaning and gratuitous way".^[17]

Charitable activity[link]

Balding participated in a celebrity edition of The Apprentice in order to raise money for charity.^[18] Sport Relief Does The Apprentice is part of the BBC's annual charity initiative and aired on 12 March and 14 March 2008.

"The Girls' team", which also included Louise Redknapp, Jacqueline Gold, Kirstie Allsopp and Lisa Snowdon, won the contest, raising over £400,000 from ticket sales and sales on the night of the big event at their shop.

In 2010 Balding became a patron of the British Thyroid Foundation.^[19]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Clare Balding Website
• Biography of Clare Balding BBC Press Office
• Clare Balding at the Internet Movie Database

Suzanne Virdee (born 16 October 1969^[1]) is a British journalist and television presenter, best known as a former presenter for the BBC regional news programme Midlands Today.

Career[link]

Virdee became a journalist at the age of 18, working as a trainee reporter at the Solihull Times in her home town. She passed her journalism exams and switched to television journalism, working for Central News in Birmingham. Virdee went onto work for the Sunday Mercury and the Birmingham Mail (then the Birmingham Evening Mail) before a 16-month stint with BBC WM.

She returned to Central News West as a reporter, presenter & producer before joining the BBC's Midlands Today programme in April 2001, presenting late night bulletins before becoming a main presenter a year later, alongside Nick Owen. Virdee has also worked as a relief presenter for BBC Breakfast.

On 29 March 2012, Virdee left Midlands Today after announcing she was unable to sign a five-month contract to continue presenting the programme.^[2] The BBC took Virdee off air two days earlier than planned after she released a press statement about her departure.^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• BBC profile for Suzanne Virdee
• Interview with Suzanne Virdee on Channel 4's IdeasFactory
• Suzanne Virdee on Twitter

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