Jermaine Jenas reveals the bizarre way he landed presenting gig on The One Show
HE MIGHT be a familiar face to many now as BBC’s The One Show co-host, but Jermaine Jenas has revealed he got the job in a rather bizarre way.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun Online, Jermaine explained that he’d never actually auditioned for the job.
The 39-year-old ex-Tottenham Hotspur player has turned his hand to presenting since leaving professional sports, but admitted he worked very hard to get to where he is today.
Speaking of his transition from sports to presenting, Jermaine said: “It’s not something I planned; it wasn’t something I thought of that I was definitely going to do when I was playing.
“I think a lot of players playing now have their complete plan. I wasn’t one of those, I was a bit like well we’ll see how this goes and then ended up retiring early and got into television.”
Jermaine explained that once he saw a potential future in TV: “I just wanted to work as hard as I possibly could. I just treated that career – my career I’m in now in the media – the same as I treated my football career.”
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“I started putting in the work. Then woke up one day on The One Show which still is crazy to me but I’m still learning every single day that I’m presenting live TV.”
When it came to his life-changing regular gig on The One Show, Jermaine admitted he wasn’t even aware he auditioned for it.
He said: “In a weird way, I didn’t even know I was auditioning for the job if I’m totally honest.
“It was one of those situations where I’d never really read autocue consistently, I’d practised every now and again, anytime Gary [Lineker] jumped out of his seat or Mark Chapman jumped out of his seat, I’d always ask Michelle: [autocue operator on Match of the Day] ‘Can I read their scripts?’
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“I’d do it with all of them, Dan Walker when I was on Football Focus.
“I’d try and practise there but then I just get this phone call from my agent one day who said, The One Show want you to go and host the show on Friday and I was like ‘What? I’ve never even done this before!’
“So, I went in on a Thursday, just did a quick read through with Alex Jones and she was amazing and continues to be amazing and helped me through loads of it.”
Jermaine spoke to The Sun Online as part of the Everyones Turf campaign with Great British Racing.
He explained: “My involvement in the campaign is to shed some light on the fact that the occasion of going to the races is more than I think people would assume it’s about, just open people’s eyes to the fact that it’s a family event that you can go to.
“There’s lovely restaurants, there’s enjoyable things to do.
“Apart from just watching racing, there are a lot of other things that you can take your kids to do and watch.”
Jermaine Jenas is supporting Great British Racing’s Everyone’s Turf campaign, showcasing the range of raceday offerings available to suit everyone.
To find an upcoming race fixture near you, visit greatbritishracing.com/everyonesturf.