Eamonn Holmes has made his final appearance as host of the Sky News flagship breakfast programme, Sunrise.
This morning the 56-year-old Belfast native bade viewers farewell as he departed from the show after 11 years and some 3,000 episodes.
After undergoing a hip operation earlier this year, the former UTV journalist last month announced that he was quitting the show to concentrate on other television projects.
It's over and out from all of us... we'll miss you @EamonnHolmes 😘😘😘 pic.twitter.com/NG3hjF56n3
— Isabel Webster (@SunriseIsabel) October 13, 2016
At the end of Thursday's broadcast he thanked viewers "for putting up with me for all that time"
"In that 11 years I’ve had to report on some awful news but I’ve also had to report on some really fantastic news some really uplifting news and we should have more of that.
"But the main thing is it’s not important who presents the news the news is the important thing, keep on watching it, keep on doing it, Sunrise and the news continues after the break in the morning."
When he announced his departure on Facebook back in September, Holmes said that "Anchoring my own breakfast show for 11 years has been for me the stuff of boyhood dreams. It was the job I hoped to do as a young Belfast lad - and because of Sky News I got there.
Holmes co-presented GMTV for twelve years between 1993 and 2005, before presenting Sky News Sunrise for eleven years between from 2005.
Since 2006, he has co-hosted This Morning on ITV with his wife Ruth Langsford on Fridays and during school holidays.
In stepping down, Holmes ends his run as the longest-serving breakfast news anchorman on British television. He will continue to host This Morning as well as other television projects.
