| Brian Dowling | |
|---|---|
[[File: |250px|center]]
| |
| Born: | 13 June, 1978 |
| Hometown: | Rathangan, County Kildare |
| Occupation: | Air Steward |
| Big Brother 2 | |
| Entered: | Day 1 |
| Exited: | Day 64 |
| Status: | Winner |
| Nomination(s) Received: | 8 |
Brian Patrick Robert Dowling is a housemate from Big Brother 2 and Ultimate Big Brother.
Profile[]
Brian Patrick Robert Dowling, born on 13 June 1978, was a flight attendant for Ryanair before entering the house. He originates from Rathangan, County Kildare, Ireland. He "came out" as being gay to his parents only two weeks before the competition. Brian says he doesn't like vegetables, salad or anything healthy but does make "a wicked shepherd's pie". His nickname is Bambie and is happy to describe himself as a "trolley dolly".
Big Brother 2[]
Brian in Big Brother 2.
Brian proved to be popular amongst his fellow housemates, avoiding being nominated throughout the entire series. In total, he received only eight nominations from his fellow housemates. Brian was voted the winner of Big Brother 2 on Day 64, receiving 61% of the public vote against Helen.
Nominations History[]
| Brian's Nominations History | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Week | Brian's Nominations |
Nominations Against Brian | |
| 2 | Helen, Elizabeth |
– | |
| 3 | Stuart, Helen |
– | |
| 4 | Paul, Amma |
Helen, Paul | |
| 5 | Paul, Amma |
Elizabeth, Helen | |
| 6 | Paul, Amma |
Josh | |
| 7 | Paul, Josh |
Josh, Paul | |
| 8 | Paul, Helen |
Paul | |
| Winner, Day 64 | |||
Ultimate Big Brother[]
Brian appeared to be fairly popular with his fellow housemates and avoided facing the public vote. Brian went on to reach the Final of Ultimate Big Brother where he was crowned the winner with 49.21% of the three-way vote to win.
Nominations History[]
| Brian's Nominations History | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Day | Brian's Nominations |
Nominations Against Brian | |
| 3 | John, Coolio |
John | |
| 7 | Makosi, Nick |
Makosi | |
| 13 | Nick, Preston |
Vanessa, Victor | |
| Winner, Day 18 | |||
Post-Big Brother[]
Dowling followed his Big Brother success by presenting SMTV Live, becoming the first openly gay children's television presenter. He also presented his own show on ITV, Brian's Boyfriends, as well as narrating the Channel 4 reality show The Salon.
In 2002, Brian co-hosted the Elle Style Awards with BBC Radio 1 presenter Jo Whiley. In 2003 he joined Duncan James and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson in presenting the NOW Magazine Style Awards, where he also won the award for "Most Stylish UK TV Personality".
Dowling regularly stood in for Liz Bonnin on LivingTV's Celebrity Extra show in 2004. He has also voiced numerous adverts and TV series and has presented the companion show to I'm Famous and Frightened!.
In July 2005, Dowling fronted the Party in the Park concert in Leeds with Coronation Street's Nikki Sanderson. He then went on to front the Irish O2 in the Park concert, in Phoenix Park, Dublin, alongside Fran Cosgrave and Caroline Morahan in August 2005.
Dowling hosted a showbiz slot on Vernon Kay's BBC Radio 1 Saturday morning show from 9 October 2004 to September 2006.
In October 2005, Dowling presented a series of special Christmas features as part of Sky Digital's interactive platform programming, titled Christmas Wrapped Up, in which he reviewed and helped to promote products that were available for purchase in the shopping areas of Sky Digital's Sky Active service.
Dowling was reintroduced as a presenter on ITV in March 2006 when the network launched its ITV Play subsidiary. Along with six others, Dowling was signed up as a presenter of the network's interactive gamble based telephone show The Mint. The game show ran till 2007.
In October 2007, Dowling and his family appeared on All Star Family Fortunes, where they won £4,660 for charity. During the final round "Big Money", Dowling was asked "Name a type of bean.", and after saying, "baked bean", which had already been given, he was asked for another answer, to which he exclaimed "lesbian!". When his answer came up on the board, it was displayed as "Les Bean".
Dowling was a contestant in the ITV reality series Hell's Kitchen during September 2007, in which he competed against other celebrities to impress celebrity chef Marco Pierre White. Dowling finished in third place. Whilst participating, he had numerous clashes with fellow contestant Jim Davidson because of what Dowling interpreted as Davidson's homophobic slurs. Davidson was subsequently asked to leave the show as a contestant due to what ITV described as "unacceptable remarks" against Dowling. Dowling's next job was as the presenter of Backstage at the Big Top, a spin-off show of the second series of Sky1's Cirque de Celebrité.
Following on from this, in August 2008, Dowling was a contestant in the Irish reality television show, Fáilte Towers, where he and 12 other celebrities had to take on the roles of hotel staff. He came second to John Creedon. He then went on to become a contestant on TV3's Celebrity Salon, in which he and several other Irish celebrities (Pippa O'Connor, Leigh Arnold, Virginia Macari, Celia Holman Lee and Breffny Morgan) learn the tools of the beauty trade. Celebrity Salon began airing on Monday 7 June 2010. Tasks included giving facials, waxing, performing cosmetic surgery, hairdressing and styling.
He also appeared in a special episode of Come Dine with Me, alongside three other previous winners of Big Brother and was declared the winner. Following this he has appeared as co-host alongside Katherine Lynch on the RTÉ2 series Wagons Den.
On 22 July 2011, after months of speculation, it was officially confirmed that Dowling would become the new presenter of the revived series of Big Brother on Channel 5. He has so far presented four celebrity series in August/September 2011, January 2012, August/September 2012 and January 2013, and two series of the main show in 2011 and 2012.
On 13 March 2013 it was reported that Dowling would be axed from Big Brother and be replaced by Emma Willis with a source saying "Brian has been a great host but Emma is seen by channel chiefs as a true successor to Davina. They're talking to her now about taking over the role from the summer," a source said. Like Davina when she hosted the show, Emma's young, a mum of two, and very glamorous. The audience love her on BBBOTS, and execs want to capitalise on that. She's thinking it over, but it's a great opportunity and she would be mad to turn it down". Dowling has also had numerous appearances on This Morning, presenting segments on the show
Big Brother Presenting History[]
| Year | Series | Show | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Celebrity Big Brother 8 | Big Brother | Main Presenter |
| Big Brother 12 | |||
| 2012 | Celebrity Big Brother 9 | ||
| Big Brother 13 | |||
| Celebrity Big Brother 10 | |||
| 2013 | Celebrity Big Brother 11 |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In Big Brother 2, Brian did not receive any nominations until Week 4.
- Brian was the youngest housemate in Big Brother 2.
- Brian was the first ever openly gay winner.
- He was also the first Irish winner.
- Aside from Weeks 2 and 3, in Big Brother 2, Brian nominated Paul Clarke every week.
- Brian holds a record for never being placed up for eviction during his two stays in the Big Brother House.
- In 2005, during Big Brother's Top 20 Housemates, Brian was voted Britain's favourite ever housemate.
- The last three remaining housemates in Ultimate Big Brother, in other words the Final 3, all received exactly 4 nominations against them throughout their stay in the House; this includes Brian.
- Thus far, Brian is the only ever person to be crowned the winner of a Big Brother series twice.
- Brian has appeared on more episodes and series of Big Brother then any other housemate; this is due to the fact that he has presented numerous series of Big Brother.
- Thus far, Brian is the only ever person to be a housemate on a series of Big Brother and then go onto present a future series of Big Brother.
| Big Brother 2 Housemates |
|---|
|
Amma Antwi-Agyei · Brian Dowling · Bubble Ferguson · Dean O'Laughlin · Elizabeth Woodcock · Helen Adams · Josh Rafter · Narinder Kaur · Paul Clarke · Penny Ellis · Stuart Hosking |
| Ultimate Big Brother Housemates |
|---|
|
Brian Dowling · Chantelle Houghton · Coolio · John McCririck · Josie Gibson · Makosi Musambasi · Michelle Bass · Nadia Almada · Nick Bateman · Nikki Grahame · Samuel Preston · Ulrika Jonsson · Vanessa Feltz · Victor Ebuwa |