Nicky’s burning ambition
From Westlife to the high life of presenting DWTS, Nicky’s definitely got talent...
NICKY Byrne takes a quick glance at his phone, currently buzzing on a table in his dressing room where I have ambushed him after another stint presenting Dancing With The Stars. He quickly mutes it, leans back and smiles. Nicky is, as always
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR the consummate professional. His boys Jay and Rocco, both fans of the show, are calling looking for their weekly debriefing, but the popstar and 39-year-old 2fm DJ is happy to sit down and chat.
Nicky may have been all things to all teenage girls when he was with Westlife but thanks to Dancing With the Stars, he now has legions of fans in every generation, from pre-teens to grannies, even more so than when he was dancing on the BBC’s Strictly.
‘It happened a bit when I was on Strictly because it is such a juggernaut,’ he admits. ‘But that went away quickly and as soon as you are off the show, people forget. It does happen with the radio as well.
‘You forget that you are in people’s kitchens and cars and they get to know you even better and radio is so instant and so live that you are in people’s minds every day.’
Being the voice in people’s cars and kitchens has certainly changed things for Nicky.
‘It is a different thing to Westlife because people walk up to you more like they know you and feel you are one of their mates now,’ he says. ‘They can talk about things that we were doing on the show that day.’
And everyone, it seems, has something to say about Marty Morrissey’s quick step and Anna Geary’s Samba.
‘With the dancing everyone has an opinion,’ Nicky says. ‘If I stop on the way home from the show, I always bring the kids home a strawberry malt from Eddie Rocket’s on the way back, and when I go there, or the garage to get petrol, everyone has watched the show and has something to say about it.’
Even the boys in blue can’t get enough of Dancing With The Stars, Nicky reveals. ‘Last year I remember stopping for petrol and the gardai were there when I walked in. They said hello and told me they had just watched us on the TV. It’s great and it shows you that we are doing something right.’
As far as viewing figures are concerned, Dancing With The Stars is a huge success for RTE, regularly hitting the half-million mark.
In fact, Nicky can hardly escape the cult following for the show. Even at his kids’ football matches, he is quizzed for backstage gossip and insider knowledge ahead of the Sunday night broadcast.
‘More importantly, everywhere I go people are talking about the show which is a better barometer,’ he says. ‘I was at one of my boy’s football games during the week and one of the parents said to me that what was great was that it was their Glenroe. All the family were watching it.’
And it is something that means a lot to Nicky, to be bringing families together.
‘For him to be able to sit down and find something that he could watch with his own kid and get him to put down the devices, which is almost impossible, is great,’ he says. ‘That makes me proud, because my kids are the same at home.
‘And we did it last night watching Ireland’s Got Talent. I sat down with everyone and got them to put all the iPads down and we watched it. That’s what these big entertainment shows do for families.’
Dancing With The Stars is very much a family affair for Nicky. His two boys and his daughter Gia are fans as is wife Georgina, who was watching in the audience last week.
Even his brother Adam has a taste for showbiz and works behind the scenes for the production company that makes all the magic happen.
‘Gia loves the show as well,’ Nicky says of his youngest child. ‘ Kai is her favourite and they love it and always grill me on it.’ But of course, there’s a lot more to presenting a hit show than just turning up to Ardmore on Sunday evenings.
‘I always get rehearsals sent to me on a Saturday night, to watch and make notes on,’ Nicky says. ‘The kids will always be on to me wondering if they have come in as they are dying to watch them. We watched them after Ireland’s Got Talent last weekend.
‘We will put the dances on and I will be scribbling away and one of them will be impatient and want to know what songs Alannah and Vitali are dancing to, and they give me a bit of help as well.
‘My brother Adam is working on the show too so it is a family affair at this stage.’
When it comes to presenting and broadcasting, Byrne has the complete package. He has the popstar good looks and an affable conversational style. He was Westilfe’s go-to man for crowd interaction during their sell-out live shows, so the prospect of debriefing celebrities live on air after their dance doesn’t faze him one bit. If anything he has really found his stride in season two. ‘We started off in week one where we left off last year,’ Nicky says. ‘That was important and for me on a personal level as a presenter I needed that consistency. Last year went so well and it was key that I started all guns blazing and it was not a case of finding my feet again.’
NICKY’S first presenting gig on The Hit was, of course, a steep learning curve when it was cancelled after just one series, as was his ill-fated lottery show. But series two has proved that the success of Dancing With The Stars wasn’t just a flash in the pan.
‘It seems to be going well,’ Nicky says. ‘And there’s another great cast this year. It is great for me on all fronts. It is a joy to do — it is busy granted, but I love it. I love everything about the show and the craic that the celebrities have when they are together.
‘Everyone is having fun and then the figures come in every Monday. That’s the nervous part. Every Monday when you get the text it is the report card. And so far it has been incredible and you feel like you are on top of the world. It’s funny; if the text with the numbers doesn’t come in early you start to get more nervous.
‘I’ve got the text a few times when I am on air on 2fm, and under your breath you just go ‘F**k yeah’, but then it is back to the show and you have a cheeky moment to yourself after the show.
‘A couple of times it hasn’t come until late and that evening in your head you are thinking the figures must be brutal but inevitably the text comes and the numbers haven’t slipped at all, which is incredible.’
What sets Nicky apart from the herd of pop stars out to pasture after their time in the spotlight is his willingness to get his hands dirty.
He earned his presenting spurs on
the Eurovision, The Hit and the Lottery’s Millionaire Game, as well as fronting his own 2fm daily radio show alongside his work wife Jenny Greene and has built an impressive audience of more than 150,000 listeners. ‘I would put a lot of my confidence down to being on radio every day with Jenny’, he says.
‘Because you know deep down you have the ability but sometimes you doubt yourself.
‘I know when I was in Westlife and we would be doing the Graham Norton Show or something, there was always four or five of us and it was hard to find your moment.’
And Nicky admits there were also moments where you could find yourself stuck for words.
‘The worst thing you could do is have that one thing to say and open your mouth and then silence,’ he says.
But landing a radio gig has given Nicky the confidence to transfer his skills to television and fly solo, rather than be among a foursome singing Flying Without Wings.
‘I suppose my confidence has just come on with every show,’ he says. ‘Being on radio, for any live TV presenter, just makes you sharp. You have to be, because it is three hours of live radio, five days a week. I would be sharper now than I would have ever been. I am doing it four years now.’ Radio, of course, is an ever-changing landscape and nowhere has changed more than 2fm over the last few years, something which, as a performer turned presenter, Nicky is acutely aware of.
‘Really 2fm has had such a change since Gerry Ryan passed away, God rest him,’ Nicky says. ‘Four years in for me it seems to have found its groove and, touch wood, we keep growing and improving.’ Nicky admits his own on-air success didn’t happen overnight either. ‘It took time,’ he says. ‘It probably took longer than I had hoped if I am honest. I think we have a lot of older listeners. I think we have some of the listeners who would have listened to Gerry Ryan and never left and are enjoying it.’ This seems surprising as the station is reaching for a younger market, but as long as there are plenty of listeners, Nicky doesn’t seem to mind what age they are. ‘Maybe the music isn’t their thing but they enjoy the craic, the funny stories and the interaction,’ he says. ‘I suppose I am trying to get better every day. I suppose it depends if I like them or not.’ While last year DWTS was the new show on the block, TV3’s new offering of Ireland’s Got Talent appears to be stealing some of the show’s thunder. However Nicky, who is no stranger to spin, laughs off any competition. If anything he believes that having two primetime shiny floor shows is good for Irish TV. Although he is still secretly delighted to have bigger ratings than his former manager Louis Walsh, who is a judge on Ireland’s Got Talent. ‘Ireland’s Got Talent was great, I really enjoyed it,’ he says. ‘I had seen little snippets of the set and I was delighted. Because DWTS looks so good. ‘I think everyone was shocked last year at how good it looked and I knew that Talent would do the same because everyone had to raise their game on the back of our show. ‘And that sort of healthy competition can only be good for Irish TV. I was delighted for everyone involved. Bar Michelle Visage, I know everyone. ‘Obviously Louis and Jason I know well and I did Strictly with Denise so I know them all and Lucy. I am delighted for them and I was hooked immediately.’ And one special lady brought a few tears to the eyes of the Byrne household. ‘Of course there was Evelyn. All of us were crying. Even my two lads who are ten were like, “Dad, I am going to cry”. ‘I told them it was okay to cry. I texted Darren Smith (the producer) last night to let him know I thought she should win the show.’ And with Talent being shown on Saturdays, while Dancing With The Stars gets top billing on Sundays, Nicky is happy enough there’s room for them both. ‘They are on two different nights and are completely different,’ he says. But he does have a vested interest in keeping up the ratings, which he now admits with a smile. ‘I would still like to keep getting that one up on Louis if I can,’ Nicky says. ‘You have to have that little bit of competition.’ ODancing With the Stars on RTÉ One, Sundays at 6.30pm.