Daryl Somers

Daryl Somers Biography

Daryl Paul Somers, OAM (born 6 August 1951 in Geelong, Victoria) is an Australian television personality and musician, and a triple Gold Logie award-winner. He rose to national fame as the host and executive producer of the long-running comedy-variety program Hey Hey It's Saturday and continued his television celebrity and status as host of the live-performance program Dancing with the Stars.

Early life

Somers was educated at the Christian Brothers College, St. Kilda. A drummer, he joined a group playing music in the style of Herb Alpert which began under the name "Pasquale and his Mexican Rhythm". Under the name "Somerset", the group appeared on GTV-9's talent-quest programme New Faces, winning their way to the finals, only to be beaten by John Williamson.

Television career

The Hey Hey It's Saturday era (1971-99)

Somers started professional TV work on 14 July 1971, taking over as the presenter of an afternoon children's program called Cartoon Corner, which was previously Skeeter's Cartoon Corner, hosted by James Kemsley (who went on to draw the famous Ginger Meggs comic strip for 23 years). Daryl's first words were, "Hi, I'm Daryl Somers, Skeeter will no longer be with us and now it's time for a cartoon."

His audition consisted of him doing an impersonation of Mr Magoo. Daryl was accepted and was duly paid $75 a week to do the show.

Later that year, on 9 October 1971, Hey Hey It's Saturday started. Somers at first co-hosted with footballer Peter McKenna, but eight weeks later, his co-host became the pink hand-puppet Ossie Ostrich, which was operated by former In Melbourne Tonight staff writer Ernie Carroll. McKenna continued to appear on the show for some time. Originally created as a Saturday morning children's cartoon show, the program gradually expanded in both size and scope. Soon, additional cast members joined, including booth announcer John Blackman, who also voiced many (unseen) characters, and, later, co-host Jacki MacDonald.

The program's production crew also began to play a prominent role in the series, with sound-effects technician Murray Tregonning adding humorous sound bites and sound effects from a huge bank of recorded eight-track cartridges, and personnel such as long-serving cameraman "Lucky Phil" Lambert making regular appearances.

Props assistant Ian "Krystal" Murray provided props, most famously the "Dicky Knee" character:

The series' distinctive brand of irreverent humour soon attracted a sizable adult audience, and in 1984, it had become so popular, Nine made the unprecedented decision to move it to a 9:30 Saturday evening timeslot, and renamed Hey Hey It's Saturday Night. It remained on Saturday night for the rest of its run, but moved to the 6:30 time-slot in 1985 and eventually also reverted to the name Hey Hey It's Saturday. At its height, Hey Hey It's Saturday was one of the most popular and consistently high-rating series in the history of Australian television, winning many awards, including three Gold Logie awards for Somers. Hey Hey screened for 28 years (1971-99) on the Nine Network across Australia. It had by then become an institution, so considerable shock occurred when the Nine Network announced that the series was to be axed at the end of 1999.

Family Feud and The Daryl Somers Show (1980-83)

In 1980, Daryl replaced Tony Barber on the quiz show Family Feud, and hosted the program for three years and 713 episodes. In June 1982, he was given his own night-time TV variety show - without Ossie - in the style of The Don Lane Show aptly named The Daryl Somers Show, which ran for 18 months. Somers still ran Hey, Hey during this time. All the hard work paid off with Daryl winning his first Gold Logie Award for Most Popular Personality on Australian TV in 1983. Also in 1983, Somers was crowned King of Moomba with Edna Everage as his Court Jester.

Break (2000-03)

During the five years after the show's demise in December 1999, Daryl Somers rarely made public appearances, with the exception of a court appearance in 2001 to answer a drink driving charge (after which Somers admitted he was "...a bloody idiot" - a reference to a famous antidrunk-driving advertising campaign of that time), and an appearance as a guest on the Network Ten program Rove Live.

Dancing with the Stars era (2004-07)

In late 2004, Somers returned to the small screen when he made the move to sign with Nine's arch rival, the Seven Network, hosting Dancing with the Stars, a live program where 10 celebrities compete each week in a dance competition. On 30 November 2007, Somers announced that he would leave Dancing with the Stars. Somers was replaced by actor Daniel MacPherson, who was the host from season 8 till season 14.

Return of Hey Hey It's Saturday (2009-10)

Somers had another year off television duties in 2008. Interest had been considerable in the reformation of Hey Hey It's Saturday in some capacity. ABC Radio Broken Hill interviewed Corrine Lawrence and Daryl Somers on 22 July 2009 in regards to the growing interest. He revealed the show's return is "not out of the question" and speculated that one or two reunion specials could be made in the near future. A reunion special aired on 30 September 2009. It rated strongly, attracting 3.9+ million viewers, although the second show generated international controversy because of a "blackface" Jackson 5 parody act (called The Jackson Jive) that appeared on the "Red Faces" segment.

With the success of the Reunion Specials in 2009, the show returned in 2010 as a regular series. The 2010 series had 20 episodes airing, with the first 13 episodes airing from April until July, with the remaining seven episodes airing in October and November, all of which rated well. Hey Hey It's Saturday did not return in 2011 and the Nine Network made no further comment whether the show would ever return. No new episodes have been produced since 2010.

You're Back in the Room (2016)

In October 2015, it was announced that Somers would return to the Nine Network to host an Australian version of the British hypnotism game show, You're Back in the Room in 2016.

The Australian version of You're Back in the Room premiered on 3 April 2016, attracting 1.155 million viewers, despite negative reactions on Twitter.

List of TV programs

New Faces, 1968, runner-up contestant
New Faces, 1970, winning contestant
Cartoon Corner, 1971-1977 Host
Hey Hey it's Saturday, 1971-1999, 2009-2010, host and producer
Bandstand, 1976, Host
King of Pop Awards, 1976-7, host
The Graham Kennedy Show, 1970s regular artist
The Don Lane Show, 1970s regular artist
The Mike Walsh Show, 1970s regular artist
Family Feud, 1980-82, host
Countdown, 1981, guest host
The Daryl Somers Show, 1982-3, host
Blankety Blanks, host, 1985
TV Week Logie Awards, Host, 1988, 1991, 1996-98, 2006
New Faces, host and producer, 1989
The Russell Gilbert Show, producer, 1998
Gonged But Not Forgotten, producer (199?)
Dancing with the Stars, host, 2004-2007
You're Back in the Room, host, 2016

Logies

Somers has been a part of the Logies since his early days of television, either as host, winner, or nominee. He has been host five times (1988, 1991, 1996, 1997, 1998) and co-host in 2006.

Logies won:

Gold Logie - three times (1983, 1986 and 1989)
Most Popular Light Entertainment / Comedy Personality - once (1990)
Most Popular Light Entertainment Personality - four times (1993, 1995, 1996, 1997)
Most Popular Comedy Personality - once (1995)

Logies nominated:

Gold Logie - 12 times (1984-5, 1987-8, 1990-1, 1993-8)
Most Popular Light Entertainment Personality - once (1994)
Most Popular Comedy Personality - once (1997)

Personal life

Somers is a singer and drummer and is married to Julie da Costa, a former principal dancer with the Australian Ballet and is now a director of the Australian Ballet.

Other work

Somers released an album on the Sony BMG label titled Songlines in 2005. The album contains covers of various music.

In 2013, Somers was announced as part of the performing line-up of Harvest Rain Theatre Company's 2014 season, playing Nicely Nicely Johnson of Guys and Dolls.