- published: 19 May 2016
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Daryl Paul Somers, OAM (born Daryl Schulz 6 August 1951 in Geelong, Victoria, Australia), is a triple Gold Logie award-winning recipient, who is best known as an Australian television personality and musician. The son of a dairy farmer and a cabaret singer, Somers rose to national fame as the host and executive producer of the long-running comedy-variety program Hey Hey It's Saturday and continued his television celebrity and status as host of the live-performance program Dancing with the Stars.
Somers, who has an Irish Catholic heritage with a German background, was educated at Christian Brothers College, St. Kilda. A drummer, he joined a group playing music in the style of Herb Alpert which began under the name "Pasquale and his Mexican Rhythm". Under the name "Somerset", the group appeared on GTV-9's talent-quest programme New Faces, winning their way to the finals, only to be beaten by John Williamson.
Somers started professional TV work on 14 July 1971, taking over as the presenter of an afternoon children's program called Cartoon Corner, which was previously Skeeter's Cartoon Corner, hosted by James Kemsley (who went on to draw the famous Ginger Meggs comic strip for 23 years). Daryl's first words were, "Hi, I'm Daryl Somers, Skeeter will no longer be with us and now it's time for a cartoon."