On 22 July 2011, it was confirmed that Dowling would become the new host of Big Brother upon its transfer to Channel 5, replacing Davina McCall.
Before he entered the public eye, he trained as a holiday rep and air steward, working as a flight attendant for Ryanair.
[3] Dowling was the winner of series 2 of Big Brother, beating Helen Adams in the final and polling 4,231,660 votes (58%) out of a total 7,255,094.
In July 2005, Dowling fronted the Party in the Park concert in Leeds with Coronation Street's Nikki Sanderson.
Dowling also hosted a showbiz slot on Vernon Kay's BBC Radio 1 Saturday morning show from October 2004 to September 2006.
Along with six others, Dowling was signed up as a presenter of the network's interactive gamble based telephone show The Mint.
Following on from this, in August 2008, Dowling was a contestant in the Irish reality television show, Fáilte Towers, where he and 12 other celebrities had to take on the roles of hotel staff.
On 22 July 2011, after months of speculation, it was confirmed that Dowling would become the new presenter of the revived series of Big Brother on Channel 5.
On 6 February 2020, Dowling and Kai Widdrington were announced by RTÉ as the first male same-sex dance partners on the show during switch-up week.
In December 2008 – January 2009, he starred as the evil Captain Hook in Anthem Productions' presentation of Peter Pan.