Christopher Jonathan Hollins (born 20 March 1971) is an English journalist, presenter and TV personality. Hollins is best known for being the sports correspondent for ''

BBC Breakfast ''BBC Breakfast'' is a British television breakfast news programme, produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC One every morning from 6:00am. It is also broadcast on the UK feed of BBC News channel on weekends. The simulcast is presented live, ...

'' until 2012 and for winning ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

'' 2009. Hollins presented the BBC consumer rights series ''

Watchdog Watchdog or watch dog may refer to: Animals *Guard dog, a dog that barks to alert its owners of an intruder's presence * Portuguese Watchdog, Cão de Castro Laboreiro, a dog breed * Moscow Watchdog, a breed of dog that was bred in the Soviet U ...

'' from 2010 until 2015.

Early life

Hollins was born into a footballing family in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

, south London. His father was John Hollins, the former Chelsea,

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

footballer. His uncle

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

was a goalkeeper and played for

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

as well as

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, winning eleven caps. Hollins was educated at Bickley Park School in Bromley and

Tonbridge School Tonbridge School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for boys aged 13–18) in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde (sometimes spelt Judd). It is a member of the Eton Group and has clo ...

. He graduated from

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

in 1993 with a degree in history and sociology and a special diploma in social sciences from

Keble College, Oxford Keble College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University Museum a ...

in 1994.

Career

Sport

After leaving Tonbridge School in 1989, he played football for Charlton,

, and

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spr ...

. He then attended

and subsequently

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

for whom he played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

and gained a

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

Television

Hollins started his media career at London TV station Channel One TV, then owned by Associated Newspapers. He then moved to

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

in 1994 followed by spells at

GMTV GMTV (an initialism for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ''ITV Breakfast, ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited'', was the name of the national ITV (TV network), ITV breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the Uni ...

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

and Five TV. Hollins joined

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

in 1999, and has also reported for ''

Grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators, typically at sports stadiums and including both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium i ...

'' and ''

Football Focus ''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974, broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. The programme, along with '' Final Score'', is a remnant from the former flagship sports show ...

''. He joined ''

'' in October 2005, replacing

Rob Bonnet Robert Bonnet (born 27 September 1952) is a British sports journalist on the BBC. He has presented bulletins across the BBC News Channel and BBC World News and presents '' Extratime'', an interview programme on BBC World and BBC News. Bonnet was ...

. Hollins was the main sport presenter on ''

Breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night. Various "typical" or "traditional" breakfast menus exist, with food choices varying by regi ...

'', presenting on Mondays–Thursdays until his final show on 21 March 2012 (he had decided not to make the move to Salford as the show was being relocated). He was also a regular male relief presenter during the week, standing in for main presenter

Bill Turnbull William Robert Jolyon Turnbull (25 January 1956 – 31 August 2022) was a British television and radio presenter and journalist whose broadcasting career spanned over 4 decades. He began his career working for some radio stations including Radi ...

. Hollins has reported from the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

in Japan, the 2010 World Cup, and America to cover

The Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major golf championships, men's major championships in Professional golf tours, professional golf. Schedul ...

golf in 2007. In 2009, Hollins joined the presenting team of the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

antique An antique () is an item perceived as having value because of its aesthetic or historical significance, and often defined as at least 100 years old (or some other limit), although the term is often used loosely to describe any object that i ...

s show ''

Cash in the Attic ''Cash in the Attic'' is a British television programme that aired on BBC One from 4 November 2002 to 24 May 2012. The programme's tagline was ''The show that helps you find hidden treasures in your home, and then sells them for you at auction'' ...

''. In April 2010, Hollins co-presented ''

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weekdays at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Roman Kemp, Ronan Keating ...

'' for a week alongside

Louise Minchin Louise Mary Minchin (née Grayson; born 8 September 1968) is a British television presenter, journalist and former news presenter who currently works freelance within the BBC. Beginning in 2012, Minchin was a regular anchor on the BBC One pro ...

while regular hosts

Adrian Chiles Adrian Chiles (born 21 March 1967) is a British writer and television and radio presenter. He has co-presented both '' The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–2011) with Christine Lampard. He was also the chief presenter for fo ...

and

Christine Bleakley Christine Louise Lampard (''née'' Bleakley, born 2 February 1979) is a Northern Irish television presenter. She has presented various television programmes with Adrian Chiles, such as '' The One Show'' (2007–2010) and '' Daybreak'' (2010–20 ...

were unavailable. Hollins returned to co-host an episode with

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American Far-right politics, far-right radio host, radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas. ''The Alex Jones Show'' is the lo ...

in March 2016. In September 2010, Hollins became a co-presenter on ''

''. He later left following the 2015 series. In July 2011 Hollins became a co-presenter on BBC One's programme ''The Great British Weather''. Hollins and

Matt Allwright Matthew Allwright (born 14 April 1970) is an English television presenter, journalist, and musician. He has presented shows such as ''Watchdog'', ''Rogue Traders'', '' Food Inspectors, The Code'', '' Fake Britain'' and ''The One Show'' for BBC ...

presented three series of '' Food Inspectors'', a factual programme which began airing on

in February 2012. In 2016, Hollins co-presented the third series of '' Secret Britain'' alongside Ellie Harrison and

Denise Lewis Dame Denise Rosemarie Lewis (born 27 August 1972) is a British sports administrator and former sports presenter and athletics athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics ...

''Strictly Come Dancing''

Hollins won the 2009 series of ''

'' with dance partner

Ola Jordan Aleksandra 'Ola' Jordan ( Grabowska; born 30 September 1982) is a Polish-British professional ballroom dancer, specialising in Latin American dancing. She appeared as a professional on the British BBC One television show ''Strictly Come Danci ...

, beating

Ricky Whittle Richard George Whittle (born 31 December 1979) is a British actor. Whittle first came to prominence as a model for Reebok in the early 2000s. He is known in the United Kingdom for his role as Calvin Valentine in the soap opera ''Hollyoaks''. ...

in the final. He consistently won the public vote throughout, despite losing the judges' vote 190 – 186 in the Final. Hollins and Jordan were the only pair in the competition never to face the "Dance Off"

Film

Hollins appeared in the 2007 film ''

Run Fatboy Run ''Run Fatboy Run'' (also written ''Run, Fatboy, Run'') is a 2007 comedy film directed by David Schwimmer, written by Michael Ian Black and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Dylan Moran, Thandiwe Newton, Harish Patel, India de Beaufort and Hank ...

'' as a marathon commentator alongside

Personal life

Hollins married Sarah Alexander, an account director for a marketing company, on 3 March 2012 at

Chelsea Old Church Chelsea Old Church, also known as All Saints, is an Anglican church, on Old Church Street, Chelsea, London SW3, England, near Albert Bridge. It is the church for a parish in the Diocese of London, part of the Church of England. Inside the Grad ...

in Chelsea, west London. The couple live in

Rotherfield Greys Rotherfield Greys is a village and civil parish in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire. It is west of Henley-on-Thames and just over east of Rotherfield Peppard (locally known as Peppard). It is linked by a near-straight minor road to ...

, Oxfordshire, and have a son and daughter. They had previously lived in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in southwest London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and also extends along the south bank of the Thames Tideway. It includes the Battersea Park. Hist ...

, south London.

Charity work

In 2008, Hollins became a patron of children's cancer charity

CLIC Sargent Young Lives vs Cancer, the operating name for "CLIC Sargent", is a charity in the United Kingdom formed in 2005. Young Lives vs Cancer is the 12th largest cancer charity in the UK with a focus on children, young people and their families. Its c ...

. Chris Hollins is an ambassador for Gold Challenge, part of the official mass participation legacy programme for the London 2012 Games, and a supporter of

WellChild WellChild is a charity that provides care for seriously ill children and young people in the United Kingdom, founded in 1977. The charity introduced and funds WellChild Nurses, who provide care and support to children and young people needing long-t ...

Filmography

;Television ;Film

References

External links

*
Chris Hollins appointed new Sports Presenter on BBC Breakfast
BBC Press Office, 5 October 2005
Chris Hollins ''Breakfast'' Profile and Interview

, 24 October 2005
Chris Hollins on the Yesterday website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollins, Chris 1971 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Bromley People from Bromley People educated at Tonbridge School Alumni of the College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham Alumni of Keble College, Oxford Oxford University cricketers English cricketers English men's footballers Aldershot Town F.C. players BBC newsreaders and journalists Strictly Come Dancing winners Men's association football midfielders