The Kildare girl, 20, who models with the Assets agency and also works as a nanny, has made it through to the last 10.

The first show in the series, which focuses on the search for a new face to replace presenters Lorraine Keane and Sybil Mulcahy, aired last night.

The series will run for eight weeks, at the end of which the winning wannabe presenter will be awarded a six-month contract with the show. They will join the four remaining presenters from the show's original line-up - Karen Koster, Glenda Gilson, Lisa Cannon and Aisling O'Loughlin.

Publisher Michael O'Doherty, public relations specialist Gerry Lundberg and former presenter and media communications specialist Emma Leddin are judges for the series.

Formerly blonde Daniella, a well-known face on the Kildare social circuit, has undergone a dramatic change in image over the past year.

The model battled a tropical disease, which she contracted on a holiday in Thailand last year. She was in quarantine for several weeks, and her hair fell out as a result of the disease. She has now reverted to brunette and her career as a high-fashion model has taken off.

The Kildare stunner will face stiff competition from contestants from Cork, Dublin, Mayo, Wexford and the north, including five men, for the
plum television job.

Daniella, who lists travel, pottery, cookery and reading as hobbies, says she would compare her presenting style to Holly Willoughby and Alexa Chung and would like Megan Fox or Keira Knightly to play her in a movie.

Her role models are all intelligent, strong minded and successful women, she says.

Daniella is a cousin of young Curragh mum Kate Moyles, who was tragically killed in the M7 motorway pile-up in dense fog in March 2007.
She came third in the Miss Ireland contest in 2007, the year the competition was won by fellow Kildare girl Blathnaid McKenna.