Paul Holmes (broadcaster)

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Paul Holmes CNZM (born April 29, 1950) is a radio and television broadcaster in New Zealand. He is the breakfast host on radio talkback station Newstalk ZB, hosting New Zealand's number one rating breakfast show. He also hosted a weekly show on Prime Television. He is widely reputed to be New Zealand's highest-paid broadcasting personality (reportedly earning over NZ$700,000 per annum while at Television New Zealand and rumoured to be earning NZ$1,000,000 after moving to competitor Prime Television). In March 2007, he announced that he would step down as the weekday Newstalk ZB breakfast host in December 2008.

[edit] Career

Holmes began his career on radio in Christchurch in the 1970s before working in Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Afterwards, he returned to New Zealand to take up a morning slot on Wellington station 2ZB.

In March 1987, Holmes took over from long-running 1ZB host Merv Smith. Following the change in format for the station from community radio (middle of the road music, news, community notices etc) to newstalk, and the replacement of Merv Smith with Paul Holmes, 1ZB fell to seventh position in the ratings. The change was controversial, as many long standing listeners to Merv Smith (who had been breakfast host for many years) did not like Holmes or the news, interview, talkback based format which had no music. It took over a year before Holmes' show eventually rose to number one in the ratings for the programme's time slot.

In 1989, Holmes became part of the younger, new-look revamp of Television New Zealand's prime-time news. His 7pm network programme (simply titled Holmes), analysing news items in greater depth, ran until 2004.

Holmes's first TV segment featured guest Dennis Conner, the America’s Cup skipper. After being provoked, Conner walked off the show, providing Holmes with headlines the next day.

Paul Holmes published his autobiography in 1999. A year later, in 2000, Holmes released an album on CD, simply titled Paul Holmes.

On 2 November, 2004, he resigned from his TV show after failed contract negotiations. It was reported by TV3 that TVNZ would not renew his contract for more than a year. Shortly after this, he moved to a rival TV company, Prime Television, which had offered a three-year contract. The new show, Paul Holmes, on Prime was launched on 7 February 2005.

In February 2005, Holmes' new show was rating 7.1% for its timeslot. His former programme on TV One held a 31% share. In March 2005, following the launch of a rival show on TV3 Campbell Live, Nielsen Media Ratings listed Holmes' show at 4%. Poor ratings forced a timeslot change after only four months, to 6 pm. By this time, the show had been retitled Holmes.

However, these small changes were not enough to save the show. The timeslot change proved fatal. On August 8, 2005, almost six months to the day after the show launched, it was axed by Prime Television, with Prime chief executive Chris Taylor citing poor ratings and inability to attract viewers from the traditional primetime news strongholds of TV One and TV3. The show returned in a weekly format in late 2005 and in 2006 was revamped into an hour long chat show similar to the popular UK show hosted by Michael Parkinson.

In 2005, Holmes was dropped from the New Zealand Listener’s 50 most powerful people list largely because of his TV show's poor ratings and influence.

He appeared on Māori Television's Waitangi Day coverage on February 6, 2007. In March, TV One, Holmes's former network, announced that he would be among the "stars" on the third season of the New Zealand version of Dancing with the Stars.

On March 16, 2007, on his 20th anniversary Newstalk ZB breakfast show, Holmes announced that he would step down at the end of 2008, though he would host its Saturday morning show.^[1]

Paul Holmes has survived multiple aircraft crashes, including a helicopter crash which killed a cameraman. Holmes' latest crash was on 31 December 2004, when he made an error while landing his vintage Boeing Stearman biplane. He has reputedly given up flying.

On June 17, 2007 Holmes' adopted daughter Millie Elder was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and receiving stolen goods. She currently faces nine related charges in the New Zealand High Court. Paul Holmes released a statement saying he loves and supports his daughter but she "has a big hill to climb". He has been present at recent court hearings and described the ordeal as a parent's "worst nightmare". Subsequently, Millie admitted possessing a meth pipe, possessing methamphetamine and permitting her premises to be used for drugs. As of August 2007, she is on bail awaiting pre-sentence reports. Millie's trial is due to be held in December 2007

[edit] Controversy

Holmes has on several occasions gained media attention for a range of scurrilous remarks on prominent individuals and issues, including a comment made in 2003 about wahi tapu (Māori sacred areas).

In September 2003, Holmes repeatedly referred to then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a "cheeky darkie" during a rant on his radio show, as well as using "darkie" to refer to black people generally.^[2] There was an international outcry following the comments, but Holmes kept his job after making several emotional apologies, claiming he had been "tired". However the major sponsor of his TV show, Mitsubishi Motors, withdrew its support.

In March 2004, he called the then-Israeli Prime Minister the "butcher Sharon." Later that year he described Tariana Turia as a "confused bag of lard", a bully who folded under pressure and who did not have the "guts to vote", as being "all mouth and no trousers, all talk and no walk” and a "complete fool".^{[citation needed]}