Alison Holloway (born 2 February 1961) is an English journalist and producer, now living in the United States. She was the original presenter of Sky Television's Sky World News Tonight and is now a network television entertainment show producer based in Los Angeles.[1]
Born in London, she grew up Battersea, and attended the nearby Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts.[2]
Holloway began her television career as a continuity announcer and newsreader at Westward Television at Plymouth in January 1979, aged only 17. She moved from Westward to HTV West in Bristol, in early 1981, as did Gerald Hine-Haycock soon after. She was a reporter-presenter, then, anchoring HTV News. Holloway remained with the station through most of the 1980s, combining her news duties with presenting many other local programmes for HTV West, including the Good Neighbour Show and the networked Animal Express.
She co-presented ITV's Olympic Games coverage in 1988, and moved to Sky at the launch of Sky News in 1989.[3] She helped launch the Southeast edition of Meridian Tonight in 1993. She also hosted the current affairs show Newsline, as well as numerous news, game, and quiz shows, and was correspondent for the 1994 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race and ITV's Rugby World Cup, and London-based correspondent for the American syndicated newsmagazines Hard Copy (Paramount Television) and A Current Affair (Fox).[4]
In 1994, she moved from Britain to America to anchor a news magazine, Premier Story and covered the O. J. Simpson murder case and trial. Remaining in Los Angeles, she later hosted programmes for Court TV, ABC, UPN, Showtime and other channels.
As of August 2015, Holloway was co-executive producer of Little Big Shots, an NBC variety series produced by Warner Bros-Horizon. She was consulting producer on American Idol XV, and co-executive producer of two seasons of the Shine America reality competition series, Fake Off for truTV (2014-2015). Also in 2014, she was co-executive producer of the high-rating two-hour NBC television special, The Sing-Off Holiday Special.
From 2007 to 2013, she was senior supervising producer of the NBC series, America's Got Talent.
She has also worked as director or producer on many series and specials, including Fox's network primetime series The Swan and Kitchen Nightmares, Moochers on CBS, Court TV's documentary film, Death of a Beatle; Fox Television's Bizarre World specials; produced specials for Court TV and Animal Planet. In 2005, she was supervising producer and on-air talent for a short-lived revival of Twentieth Television's A Current Affair. In 2010, she was executive producer of the TLC series, Inedible to Incredible, starring chef John Besh.
Aged only 21 she married Alistair Watson, son of actor Jack Watson, on April 30 1982 at Bristol Register Office. They had planned to marry in Bath.[5] They moved to St Andrew's.[6] She met Jim Davidson in December 1986, and he moved to Bristol in mid-February 1987, when she was 26. The previous week she had been living on Pembroke Road with 24 year old Bill Haynes of Rickford.[7] Davidson married her at Bristol at 11.10am on Thursday 19 February 1987.[8] [9] Whilst there may have been immense chemistry (lust) in the early stages, a marriage between such a career woman presenter and errant bed-hopping Davidson was not one likely to last. The marriage lasted seven months, due to Davidson's volatile character, heavy drinking, and constant fraternising with other women.[10] They divorced on 31 August 1988.[11] Aged 28 she married 34 year old television producer Andy Ward at Wandsworth Register Office on Saturday 9 December 1989 and at Holy Trinity Church, Clapham.[12] [13] She married for a fourth time to a 35 year old American in April 1996,[14] [15] the television and film producer Burt Kearns. They have two children.