No, no, no
Shall we dance? BOD and Amy reject third offer to cha-cha-cha with the stars on RTÉ
CELEBRITY couple Brian O’Driscoll and his wife Amy Huberman have turned down the change to star in RTÉ’s Dancing With The Stars – for the third year in a row.
Producers of the hugely popular series have already begun casting for the next instalment of the contest which will hit our screens in January 2019.
The line-up is being kept tightly under wraps but, according to executive producer Larry Bass, BOD and Amy have already ruled themselves out of taking part.
‘From day one, we have always wanted to get Brian or Amy to take part in the show,’ Larry told the Irish Mail on Sunday.
‘Every year they are top of our hit list and, every year, they have turned it down. They would be huge hits with audiences at home and Brian is an athlete and could easily be as good on the dancefloor as he was on the pitch. And everyone loves Amy so it would have been a real coup to get either of them to sign up.
‘This time around. Brian is very busy with a World Cup coming up and his TV commitments, and Amy has a new show she has written for RTÉ in development. So we are not surprised when their agent comes back to us to say they are not interested. They’d be perfect for the show though and we will still keep on hoping that they’ll come around down the line.’
A number of A-list stars are already being approached to take part in the show. Nadine Coyle, of Girls Aloud fame, and former Voice of Ireland coach Brian Kennedy are on a short list, along with our Eurovision hero Ryan O’Shaughnessy.
This year’s series two – which was won by Jake Carter and his partner Karen Byrne – proved to be a major hit with viewers.
An average audience of 576,000 switched on to watch the singer take home the Glitterball trophy on RTÉ One – accounting for almost half, or 48%, of everyone who was watching TV in Ireland at the time. The third series is already in pre-production. RTÉ Group Head of Entertainment and Music John McHugh said: ‘Dancing With the Stars has delivered all that we hoped for, and so much more.
‘The series had exceptional production values with great casting and huge talent.’