Ryan Tubridy has announced that the Late Late Show will welcome back an audience when he returns to screens this week.
The popular show is back this Friday, September 3, with Ryan at the helm for his 13th season.
And lucky for some, he revealed that he will be joined in the studio by a "very, very small" audience on his return, for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit Ireland.
"We have a very, very small audience for the first time in... What was it?
“Forty-nine shows we did straight without an audience?" he told listeners on his RTÉ Radio 1 show on Monday morning.
"We're going to have about... And everything is being done to the letter of the law in terms of guidelines and what we can and cannot do.
“So, I think we have about... We normally would have 200 people there; I think we're going to have an audience of 28."
Delighted with the announcement, the host said anything is better than nothing after presenting a whole season to an empty studio last year.
"Now, that to me is a whole lot better than an audience of nothing.
“So, I'll take 28 because as a show-off that loves attention, that'll do me fine,” he said laughing.
“I'll be able to bounce out. The alternative is like playing squash with a flat ball... This is much better.
"It's a start. And we always said that we'll only return with an audience when everyone else can have an audience so if you can have a little audience the way you have in theatres whatever, we'll do it that way.
“And then, when it goes bigger and bigger, we'll go bigger and bigger.
"So, that's a good start.
“And then I'll start telling you about the guests during the week because they're terrific."
The Late Late Show returns on Friday on RTÉ One at 9:35pm.
