Nicholas David Weir is an English entertainer. He was the second presenter of Catchphrase and is currently the Senior Vice President of Entertainment for Royal Caribbean International. He presented six game shows, including two unbroadcast pilots, all for ITV productions. Of the game shows he presented, Catchphrase was the only one he presented more than one series of.
Biography
Entertainment career
He began his entertainment career on cruise ships, as a singer and comedian. In 1997, he presented the regional sports game showOn the Ball in the Granada ITV region and, also working with Granada but airing nationally, presented a daytime game show on ITV, called Waffle in 1998, and also teamed up with Lisa Rogers to present the showGrudge Match from 1999 to 2000. He stands at a tall 6' 6", as does his brother, Simon. At the time of which he was presenting Catchphrase, he lived in Brighton, East Sussex. In 2000, Weir replaced Roy Walker as the host of the TV game show Catchphrase. During his first series, he broke his foot during a recording of the show by falling down the stairs as he made his entrance to the studio floor. The incident was edited out but was shown in a later show to explain why he was in a cast and on crutches. He continued to present his first series of Catchphrase while his foot healed, wearing a cast throughout many episodes of the show. Despite his unpopularity with viewers at the time, he succeeded in the mission of markedly improving the ratings of Series 14 and 15 in comparison to Walker's last series. Between December 2001 and January 2002, he appeared in the play Aladdin as the character of the same name in the Hexagon in Reading, Berkshire. He presented Catchphrase until 2002, although he recorded a third series in late 2001 and was shown on the ITV network between late 2002 and early 2004 usually during a quiet period on a Sunday teatime or Bank Holiday Monday. Following which, the show moved to daytime and former Blue Peter presenter Mark Curry hosted the show for the 2002 series. Predating his first game show, he also was the host in an unaired pilot for Lucky Numbers in 1994, but the host of the show was ultimately Shane Richie, and aired for three series between 1995–1997. Besides being a host, he also appeared as a contestant in a December 1997 episode of Give Us a Clue and appeared in Blankety Blank in 2001. Archive footage of Weir featured on ITV's 2014 series Come on Down! The Game Show Story. Weir also hosted a pilot for The Great British Game Show.
Cruise and Entertainment Consulting
Following Catchphrase, Weir served as entertainment consultant on board the Celebrity Eclipse as well as other Solstice Class ships, Celebrity Cruises' newest line of vessels. His consulting firm, based in Las Vegas and Miami, helped launch all five Solstice Class ships for Celebrity Cruises and designed the original entertainment programming. Because he had previous experience as a Cruise Director, Weir coordinated the entertainment programs, naming ceremonies and media events in the position of Cruise Director for the first few weeks of each ship's inaugural season. Weir also led the production of the documentary "The Making of Celebrity Reflection - The Fifth in Class" which captured the making of the vessels over an 18 month period. Clients of Weir's consulting firm include the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, MGM, Syco Television, Andre Agassi Foundation, Emeril Lagasse, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Costa Cruises.
Weir was appointed Vice President of Entertainment by Royal Caribbean on 18 September 2013, following the departure of Peter Compton. Royal Caribbean wanted Weir's combination of stage and managerial experience to push larger Vegas-style productions aboard its ships. Royal Caribbean announced "With his stellar and diverse background, Nick will help lead Royal Caribbean’s award-winning entertainment program to the next level – not just for our existing fleet of the world’s largest and most innovative cruise ships, but also for the three Quantum-class and a third Oasis-class ship that will be launching starting in late-2014. Nick joins Royal Caribbean with more than 25 years of experience in both the entertainment and cruise industries – with notable achievements in performance and production..." Since becoming the vice president, Weir has overseen the launch of the Two70° theatre in the back end of the ship in the Quantum class. The theatre features pioneering technology including the Vistarama, a projection surface that is 150 feet wide, and technology allowing users to manipulate video in any desired way, but also viewers can manipulate the screen it is being played on in three-dimensional space. He has also overseen two new stage shows, Mamma Mia! and Sonic Odyssey. Weir was also impressed with their treatment of the Saturday Night Fever stage show on Liberty on the Seas, saying they "were able to play with it a little bit and it's a slightly shorter version than the original, and it’s just magnificent. In fact, it's so impressive to me that we have a production facility here in Hollywood, and every time it does its studio run — they do a run-through before they ship out to the ship — I get in my car and go up and watch it. It’s so clever."
