1. cooked chicken one day, and the
girl behind the counter said ‘I
can’t believe you’re not coming
back’. I think the new show had
just started. ‘I’m shocked,’ she
said. And then she called out
the chefs from the kitchen and
they came out to discuss it.
And then the queue of people
behind me all got involved.
I came out of the shop 25
minutes later, with my cooked
chicken, and my husband was
outside [waiting in the car]. I
said ‘There was a production
meeting being held over the
cooked chicken, and everyone
had an opinion.’” The one
burning question on the lips
of this compassionate chicken
counter committee was ‘But
why?’ I didn’t know what to
say,” confesses Geri of herself
feeling in the dark at that
moment in time.
Did Geri ever get a solid
explanation as to why she
was axed from the hugely
popular prime time game
show? “One person made a
decision and I was told to keep it
under my hat, so I knew nobody
else knew about the decision,
and the MD didn’t know about
the decision when I went to him,”
she informs. “Sometimes there
is just connections between
people and they make personal
decisions in a professional
Maye
environment. I don’t know, but that
seemed to be what happened in
that scenario.”
Geri continues: “I was upset,
I was definitely upset, because
it wasn’t just any show to me.
I know some people just want
something for a gig – they just
want the next gig, whatever – but
I didn’t feel that way about that
particular show – the Den wasn’t
a gig to me either, it was more
than that. Maybe I was just too
emotional about my work as well,
maybe I just needed to detach.
And that was a lesson where I had
to go ‘Well toughen up, detach.
That’s what you have to do.’”
Geri also tells of fighting for the
plum Winning Streak presenting
role. “I really wanted the gig. I
would only go for a gig that I
really knew I could do rather than
try my arm at everything – I’ve
never been that person. But I
remember going to see Director
of Programmes Steve Carson and
I said: ‘But I know I can do this.’
I’d never gone and said that to
him before so it was never coming
from an arrogant place. Some
things you just know. So when I
got Winning Streak I was thrilled
and we had a great run. We had
one more Saturday to do, and
then I got ‘the call’ on the Monday
beforehand to say I wouldn’t be
coming back. It was that sudden.”
Geri & Peter
Happily, Geri is back on TV,
on RTE’s Today, with Maura
Derrane and Daithi Ó Sé, as
the show’s roving reporter.
Although her home base is in
Limerick, with her businessman
husband Peter Collins, Geri’s
work base is Dublin during
the week where she can do
outside broadcasts.
“Peter is really good for me,”
she beams of her other half.
“He’s really laid back about
things and yet he’s a real get-
up-and-doer too. It’s a nice
balance at home where we’re
both quite into our jobs and
want to do more in our careers.
We bandy ideas off each other.
We motivate each other and
inspire each other to do what
we really want to do – which
I think is really important.” It
happens that Peter is more
than a match for Geri on every
level. “He’s able to tell me if
he thinks I’m getting bold,”
she laughs, “he’s well able for
me. I need somebody to be
able for me at acquired times.
Not all the time, you have to
tell me I’m right as well – a lot
more than the other.” Geri and
Peter met as teenagers, yet not
until their late thirties did the
coming of age twosome finally
get jiggy with it.
“I don’t think
there is a dog walk
I do without people
stopping me and
asking”
TVnow 3
“Our neighbours were
going ‘How did you not get
together then?’ But he was
always training, he seemed
very into his sport,” says
Geri of 17-year-old Peter.
“He went to the World
Championship in rowing,
and now at the moment he’s
training for an iron man. He’s
really focused like that. I left
Limerick when I was 18,
and I went to college.” Geri
adds: “In all those 17 years
when we didn’t see each
other [our paths crossed a
number of times]. We were
in Sydney on the same New
Year’s Eve on the Harbour.
We were in Sicily on holidays,
with different partners, in the
same week that Mount Etna
erupted – we were staying in
the same town. And we were
in Boston with mutual friends
on a summer holiday, and we
still never met. We were all
over the world, in the same
places at the same time,
but we weren’t supposed to
meet then – it is completely
about timing – it really is. We
call our exes delay tactics. It
delayed it until the right time
came for both of us – we
just weren’t meant to meet in
Sydney.”
cooked chicken one day, and the
environment. I don’t know, but that Geri & Peter
BE I WAS JUST TOO EMOTIONAL ABOUT MY
S WELL, MAYBE I JUST NEEDED TO DETACH
”The previously dynamic
duo of Winning Streak
Tea with...771.indd 3 06/05/2015 15:50:31