Dowling tipped to replace Eoghan on 2FM breakfast show
BRIAN DOWLING is top of the leaderboard to replace Eoghan McDermott on the 2FM breakfast show, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Reality star Dowling departed the Dancing With The Stars dancefloor last week but his popularity and bubbly persona on the show has caught the eye of Montrose bosses who are on the search for McDermott’s replacement. Our sister paper, the Irish Daily Mail, exclusively revealed that McDermott, 36, was hanging up his mic and packing his bags for Australia with his doctor girlfriend Aoife Melia, leaving 2FM looking around for a co-host to fill the seat beside Doireann Garrihy. The MoS has since learned that McDermott is primed to leave this summer after the next JNLR listenership figures, which are due in May. Now in a ‘coincidental’ turn of events, Dowling just very recently was a guest on Garrihy’s podcast, in what could be seen as an informal test to see if the pair had the necessary chemistry for a successful on-air coupling.
Speaking to the MoS, Brian said that he did appear with Doireann but said he hasn’t had any overtures, meetings or offerings.
However, now that his DWTS stint has come to an end he has said that he is footloose and fancy-free and open to all offers.
‘I only met Doireann recently; we shot a podcast together. We had never met before, we got on really well, it was a fun thing to do,’ he laughed.
Brian revealed that while the podcast was arranged at the request of Doireann through the RTÉ press office, he has had no job offers from Montrose.
‘I have had no meetings about taking over Eoghan’s job, no one’s contacted me,’ he said.
‘It’s quite nice if people throw your name into something and some gig that is successful. And
I am on the hunt for work in
Ireland, hence coming back and doing DWTS.
‘I’m telling everyone in RTÉ, I’m around to do whatever. I’ve done radio, I presented the Heat Magazine radio show and I’ve worked on BBC Radio, I’m open to doing whatever once it’s a right fit and I enjoy it.’
Brian, 42, shot to fame when he won Big Brother back in 2001. Since then he has forged a lucrative career which has seen him leave Kildare for the bright lights of London and LA. But he says that along with his husband Arthur Gourounlian he is making plans to quit his globetrotting and return home to Ireland for good.
‘I am a bit of a homebird and I love being around my family and my friends,’ he added.
‘But we have made the decision that we are going to be moving back and settling in Ireland in the next year. ‘We are getting older and we want to start a family – we want to be back home and have roots here.’
‘I’m on the hunt for work in Ireland’