Ryan Tubridy said he’s not threatened by Tommy Tiernan's chat show success as he gears up to celebrate the Late Late Show’s 60th anniversary this season.
Tiernan’s Saturday night chat show ran away with the weekend TV ratings last season, trumping Tubridy and the Late Late Show to the top spot for the first time ever since its 2017 launch, with over half a million viewers tuning in at its peak.
But speaking as RTE launched its new autumn schedule on Wednesday with a Tommy Tiernan Christmas Special included, top RTE star Tubridy said he’s confident there is room for two chat shows triumphs in town.
“Thankfully I’m so comfortable in my own skin and what we’ve done and achieved here on the programme and as somebody who is a friend of Tommy’s and an admirer of Tommys, the good news there is that it was a massive win for RTE. A big win," he said.
“Big chat shows. Ratings smashed all over the place. Peace and love. Everyone’s happy. Everyone goes home with the win and what we love about it is that we have two very different shows.
“So I always like to say that we do a live TV programme that is the last live TV show around on these islands.
“Tommy does a different type of show. We bring different skill set to those shows and long may it both live.”
Whilst the comedy chat show king will be returning with a brand new season and a festive special, Tubs and The Late Late Show will be heading towards celebrating 60 years on air in 2022.
And whilst he’s still hopeful to have an audience in the studio this season, the RTE radio star promised ‘brighter days ahead’ and more ‘fun’ for the new season - which kicks off September 3.
“This is the emergence from the shadows, this is the other side.
“We’re going to hopefully have some class of audience this autumn, which I cannot wait for. “They’re so important to the programme.
“It was quite a challenge in the pandemic shows to broadcast to an empty hall.
“I’m ready to get back and get stuck in It.”
The 48-year-old star went on: “We’ve got four weeks to go. Everything is up for discussion. The show is going to look so different to anything that’s ever gone on before. The set is going to be tweaked. The lack of audience – that is going to change.
“We’ve had no band there for 49 shows so everything will be looked at and we’ll see where we go in September.”
But as he looks forward to his return to screen, he told how he feels he has changed as a presenter since the pandemic began.
“I felt we embraced a whole new sense of empathy for people at home,” the dad-of-two explained.
“I definitely grew considerably in terms of who I am as a person and in terms of who I am as a presenter, strangely enough. It really did feel like things changed. I was well guided by colleagues and friends.
"They brought me to places career wise that I hadn’t been to before, so I found that very enriching and I like to bring more of that.
“I felt that it turned me as a persona and the show into a much more authentic television experience and less showbiz and I want that to be the case going into the future. I loved being more like myself.”
Whilst Tubridy and Tiernan battle it out at the top, Angela Scanlon will also be in the mix of the chat show schedule this season, after a series of setbacks left her show ‘Ask Me Anything’ on ice for the past two years.
The flame haired Irish star recorded two episodes of the new series just before the pandemic hit in March 2020, but was forced to pull the show when the coronavirus outbreak took over.
Almost two years on, the show, which promises ‘plenty of surprises and revelations’ with guests who have agreed to be asked about absolutely anything, will finally make its debut this autumn.
After past delays, Angela admitted she worried the show would never see the light of day.
“I had kind of made peace with the fact that this would never happen again because I was excited about it at the time and then I thought what will be will be, there’s bigger things happening in the world, so I hadn’t really processed it.
“There were conversations maybe that it would come back earlier this year and then that didn’t happen because of audiences and all that kind of stuff.
“Yeah, it has always felt like it may not happen until now.”
And now that it is ready to go for the new season, the host said she’s proud to be flying the flag for female representation on screen on the new Saturday night show.
“It’s lovely and it is about time. It’s about time that there is a representation on telly. I’m happy. I’m in the weekend slot.”
But when asked if she could see herself taking over from Friday night’s if the Late Late slot ever came her way, she added: “Saturday night is good for me.”
From sport to new entertainment formats, drama to young people's programming - RTE’s new season will also include the arrival of ‘Last Singer Standing’.
The brand-new talent series fronted by Nicky Byrne, will see Nadine Coyle,
NSYNC’s Joey Fatone, and Samantha Mumba make up the popstar panel on Saturday nights.
Glow Up Ireland sees Maura Higgins challenge Ireland’s best amateur make-up artists to compete against each other, while Hell Week – The Professionals sees 18 of Ireland’s fittest from the world of sport and entertainment take on the gruelling physical and mental challenge, which has a 90% failure rate.
With a significant increase in Irish-language programming, the national psyche is the theme of GAFA, a new Irish-language series about the things that Irish people just can’t seem to stop talking about.
In the drama realm, new series Kin starring Clare Dunne, Aidan Gillen and Ciarán Hinds will debut, while money trail thriller Hidden Assets featuring Angeline Ball, Simone Kirby and Peter Coonan will also launch this season.
Smother is also back for a second series with more drama from the Ahern family, starring Dervla Kirwan, Gemma Leah-Devereux and Seána Kerslake.
Other new dramas include Harry Wild, starring Jane Seymour, comedy-drama series The Dry, and the highly anticipated Conversations with Friends based on the book by Sally Rooney, author of Normal People.
Dee Forbes, Director General, RTÉ said: "Today we unveiled a selection of programming for the months ahead with a particular focus on drama and entertainment which will see 40 hours of local Irish drama come to our screens in the coming months and in early 2022.
“Along with new entertainment shows and formats, we will welcome new faces and voices on our air as we support and seek out new Irish talent.
“We will tell Ireland’s story with a compelling slate of factual and current affairs output, programmes for young people, multi-platform arts and culture output and of course even more from RTÉ Sport, the definitive home of free-to-air sport in Ireland.
“This new season makes a compelling case for the need to sustain public service broadcasting, for our current generations and the generations to come."
Viewers can also look forward to plenty more action from Fair City every Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings, while Today with Maura and Dáithí celebrates 10 years on air with new presenter Emer O’Neill, formerly of Home School Hub, joining the daily show while Sinéad Kennedy takes maternity leave.
Soundtrack to my Life, hosted by Bressie, and a new series of DIY SOS with Baz Ashmawy will also return for new seasons as well as, The Style Counsellors with Suzanne Jackson and Eileen Smith.
The 2 Johnnies are back for another series with their outrageous musings and Oliver Callan will bring more laughs with Callan Kicks on both TV and Radio.
And in his new show, The Years - Callan will recreate key events in Irish history, with reaction to these events from contemporary characters.
Also featuring on RTÉ Player will be Cork woman Sinéad Quinlan, with her unique and quirky look at everyday life, following on from her successful series, Seriously, Sinéad?.
For kids, Storybud is a brand-new series where some famous faces - including Jason Byrne and Doireann Garrihy - re-tell some well-known children’s stories, with a bit of a twist.
RTÉ will have the largest selection of free-to-air sport available to audiences in Ireland, across TV, radio, and online, enabled by strategic partnerships with TG4 and Virgin Media, delivering the best value for the licence fee.
Highlights include Six Nations, GAA club championships, Champions League, men’s and women’s World Cup qualifiers, Autumn Internationals, FAI Cup, SSE Airtricity league, and Horse Racing.
Keelin Shanley: Faraway, Still Close, a documentary on the late Keelin Shanley and ‘Cocooned’, which looks at how our older generation “cocooned” during the earlier stages of the coronavirus pandemic will also air this season.
Ireland's Dirty Laundry, will hear from those who worked in Ireland’s notorious Magdalene Laundries.
Elsewhere, a special series with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will showcase new arrangements of the music of David Bowie.
