Elaine Crowley will balance her work on Ireland AM with Dancing with the Stars rehearsals in the new year.
The TV favourite has signed up to the hit RTE show, which returns to our screens in the first week of January.
Rehearsals are already underway ahead of the class of 2025’s first performance on Sunday, January 5th.
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Elaine, who is partnered with pro Denys Samson, is loving it so far but admits it is exhausting.
Speaking to RSVP Live at opening night of the Stadium Panto, she said: “I’m so tired. I have muscles aching in my body which I didn’t know existed. I’m dancing four hours a day,” before jokingly adding: “My voice is gone and my dignity is gone too.”
Training for Dancing with the Stars takes up a lot of time but, with the exception of Sundays, Elaine will continue to host Ireland AM on the weekends with Martin King.
“I will still be on the show on the weekends. I’ll have every Sunday off obviously because I can’t host the show and then do Dancing with the Stars, it will be too long a day,” she said.
“But yes, I will still be working away. I’m still happy out with Virgin Media, they are just lending me off for a little bit.”
Previous Virgin Media presenters who have taken to the dance floor include Glenda Gilson and Katja Mia. But Elaine didn’t seek out advice from past contestants to help reach her decision of signing up.
She said: “I didn’t ask anyone for advice, because the penny didn’t drop that I’m actually doing it until I was on The Late Late Show last. I thought, 'uh oh, there’s no backing out now'.
“I was afraid to find out too much about it, because I kind of already knew it was going to be exhausting from talking to Katja and Brooke Scullion, who have been on it before.
“They told me it was so tough and I thought they were exaggerating, but they really weren’t.”
Elaine has been approached by Dancing with the Stars bosses before, but the timing never felt right. In 2025, the Cork native wants to have fun and this is the perfect way to step out of her comfort zone.
She told us: “It’s been mooted before. I always said never in a million years would I do it. I’m not being modest here, I do not have a great skill set when it comes to dancing and I hate doing things I’m not good at.
“But I want a bit of craic next year and you only live once. The kids in my family, my nieces and nephews adore it. My sisters love it too.
“What is the worst thing that can happen? If I fall, Denys can pick me up.
“It’s a new year, a new challenge, so why not? Normally I join the gym again and hope to get fit by that but this time I have no choice because I’ll be thrown around the dance floor.”
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