Virgin Media star Lucy Kennedy has revealed she turned down an offer to be the next host of Dancing With The Stars.
Last week, Westlife singer Nicky Byrne stepped down from co-hosting the show with Jennifer Zamparelli because of the band’s tour commitments next year.
Yesterday at Virgin Media’s new season launch, Lucy revealed she was asked if she would host the Rte One show – but turned it down because of commitments to her own show, Living With Lucy.
Read More: TV and radio star Lucy Kennedy would love to see her children's books on the small screen
She revealed: “All I can say is I may have been asked and I may have said no.
“Living With Lucy is my priority so I couldn’t have done the two.”
Asked who she tipped might be the next host, the mum of three said: “I do love James Patrice. I really like him.”
But the popular Dubliner said it was a “pity” Nicky had to step down from the show, admitting he will be a loss.
“It’s a pity that Nicky can’t do it actually because I really really like Nicky as a presenter and as a person. I like the warmth that he brings and his bit which is relaxing contestants when they’re out of breath, I think Nicky will be a loss actually.”
A spokesperson for RTÉ said: "We are currently running screen-tests and have asked people to participate as part of the process to replace Nicky Byrne.
“Some people have agreed to take part, and some have decided not to take part.
“We will be announcing who the new Dancing with the Stars co-presenter is, in the coming weeks."
Lucy will return to our screens with a new show this autumn on Virgin Media.
Airing in October, Lucy Investigates will see the Classic Hits radio star jump out of her comfort zone and land in the inner circle of some of the country’s most fascinating subcultures, as Lucy immerses herself into lifestyles of four fascinating factions of Irish society, exploring everything from sex in the suburbs to life online influencing the nation.
She told us how one topic centring around Ireland’s sex lives sees her visit a sex party.
Lucy – who will also be returning in February with new episodes of Living With Lucy - said: “Sex parties exist. They are on once a week all over Ireland.
“I went to a sex party. I’m very immature. It was basically like I was just plucked from the moon as an alien and dropped into a sex party. I laughed, I giggled. I tried to be professional. It was a world I’m not sued to. But everybody was so nice, they’re obviously consensual adults.
“But just to point out that this documentary is not for our younger viewers.
“The others are fine but this one has adult content. I went to a sex party with people who are just normal people.
“It was basically different rooms, and you could do different things in different rooms but no there was no full blown (sex). I was under the wing of a dominatrix who was talking me through how it works.
“But I was still very the girl next door at a sex party. Nothing kind of shocked me. There was nothing seedy or upsetting. It was just this is what some people like to do.
“I also interviewed a sexologist and she made some really fascinating points… and she did say to me that nowadays children are leaving sex through online yuckiness and if we’re all a little bit 2022 and less giggly about hearing about these worlds, well then children would learn the right way whereas unfortunately because it is still a bit of a taboo in Ireland, it is still seen as a very dirty thing.”
Yesterday, Virgin Media announced a slew of new TV shows, including a comedy drama by Baz Ashmawy called Faithless. This comedic drama series follows Irish-Egyptian dad, Sam, who is presented with the life altering responsibility of raising his three young daughters alone.
That is until his irresponsible but irresistible younger brother moves in to ‘help’… and never leaves.
Viewers will enjoy a feast of original Irish documentaries and true-crime series including ‘Until Death’, a landmark docu-series that investigates the heart-breaking issue of domestic abuse and femicide in Ireland. With the recent lockdown-fuelled rise in reported cases, we explore if things are getting worse and what we can do to stop men hurting, and killing, women.
The Vanishing Triangle is a brand-new chilling drama series, co-produced by Virgin Media Television and The Sundance Channel in the US.
The six-part series is inspired by true events that shocked Ireland in the 1990’s as a number of women in the east of the country vanished, without trace.
They disappeared inexplicably and suddenly, and no substantial clues or evidence of their fate has ever been found despite large scale searches and campaigns by the gardai to find them.
A Dublin Murder chronicles the brutal killing of Rachel O’Reilly by her husband in 2004. This shocking two-part series investigates the murder of 30-year-old, Rachel O’Reilly, who was killed by Joe O’Reilly in her home in Naul, Co. Dublin on 4th October 2004.
Staying with true-crime, two-part documentary series Six Bullets Fired will investigate the death of George Nkencho, who was shot six times by armed Gardaí after a stand-off outside his family home in West Dublin on December 30th, 2020.
The Fall of Bomber Kavanagh tells the story of Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh, jailed for 21 years in the UK in a remarkable fall from grace for one of the Kinahan gang’s top bosses. This documentary traces the rise of the notoriously violent criminal to become the second in command of the Kinahan Organised Crime Group.
A new documentary on Graham Dwyer will also explore how the Dublin architect was jailed for life for the murder of Elaine O’Hara in one of the most notorious cases in Irish criminal history. The highly acclaimed series ‘The Guards’ also returns for a second series.
Alongside this host of documentary and factual series, VMTV boasts a brand new six-part property show, fronted by Liz O’Kane and Michael Fry, ‘How To Buy A Home’. This series unpacks the unfiltered realities Irish people face in the search for a home. Following real life experiences, this series takes a raw and honest look at the emotional rollercoaster, challenges, and hard-won joys of buying a home in Ireland.
‘The Restaurant’ returns and sees some of your favourite Irish celebrities swap their day jobs for oven gloves including Cork’s finest Demi Isaac Oviawe who will join Marco Pierre White and Rachel Allen in the kitchen as the diners eat and critique their meal all while guessing who it could be behind the kitchen doors.
Drawing on her incredible life experiences of overcoming adversity from drug addiction to prostitution, we look into the incredible life of trans woman, Rebecca de Havilland as she gives people a helping hand to turn their bad situation around and have a second chance at life in the brand-new factual series ‘Second Chance Bootcamp with Rebecca de Havilland’.
Celebrity chef Dylan McGrath takes the reins with his brand-new series ‘Dylan McGrath's Secret Service’. In this four-part series, Dylan is on a mission to prove that with the right opportunities and backing, everyone has potential to achieve their dreams. Five people who haven't had life handed to them on a plate, take up the ultimate culinary bootcamp to work with Dylan and see if they can pull off a secret service to raise money for charity.
Another favourite returning to our screens is ‘Gogglebox Ireland’, as the nation’s top couch TV critics are back with some new and returning households every Wednesday night on Virgin Media One.
Superstar Garth Brooks will grace our screens in early September in the documentary Garth Brooks: Coming Home ahead of his five planned concerts at Croke Park.
VMTV will also air the ground-breaking series ‘Inside the Hospice’ which will deal with death and grief in Ireland through unprecedented access to terminally ill patients on their journey from diagnosis to their final days under Our Lady’s Hospice and Care Services.
The best of leading international drama continues this Autumn with the brand-new four-part series ‘Ridley’ – starring our very own ‘Blood’ and ‘Line of Duty’ star Adrian Dunbar. The series follows retired Detective Alex Ridley who is lured back into service as a consultant detective when his former protégée, Carol Farman, needs help cracking a complex murder case.
‘The Suspect’ is another thriller set to have you at the edge of your seat starring Irish actor Aidan Turner as psychologist turned murder suspect Dr. Joseph O'Loughlin.
Other gripping thriller dramas include ‘Witness No. 3’ staring Irish actors, Clare Dunne and Red Rock’s David Crowley. This four-part series follows single mum Jodie, whose life is turned upside down when she inadvertently becomes a major player in a murder trial.
Irish actor Niamh Algar will take the leading role is ‘Malpractice’, a five-part medical thriller series that sees her play Dr. Lucinda Edwards, a doctor who is faced with an enquiry into the death of one of her patients.
Virgin Media will also air the NFL and live coverage of Super Bowl is coming to Virgin Media Television for the first time.
Top class football will return including UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League, as Shamrock Rovers make their first appearance in the tournament.
While the UEFA Nations League and UEFA Euro 2024 qualifiers will also keep fans entertained.
READ NEXT:
Five youths punch, kick and scrape teenage girl in sickening attack in Limerick city
Dangerous ‘exploding vase’ sold in Ireland urgently recalled amid injury fears
Aldi shopper witnesses 'best packing hack ever' that can be used in all Irish supermarkets
Game of Thrones star Jack Gleeson's transformation, quitting acting and wedding
Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter
