TV presenter and radio host Ryan Tubridy has said that he hopes to "draw a line under Covid" when the Late Late Show returns in September 2021.
Tubridy made his comments after the final episode of the RTÉ Friday night chat show aired last night, before its regular summer break.
He will be returning to the host's seat both on the Late Late and his regular Radio 1 show, after what he described as "a couple of weeks to regroup".
He told listeners before yesterday's episode aired that he was running out of gas while working on this season's episodes during the pandemic.
"You'd think you'd know these things when you do them every day but, like everyone, it's been a good old run, but I had to double-check to see what day it was and what the text number is – yeah, yeah, that's it," he said on his radio show.
He told the Irish Times that he was "rapidly running out of fuel" filming this season and added that having no studio audience was a challenge.
"I see the runners on the TV and you know that bit at the end where their legs are going to jelly as they reach the finish line and somebody is waiting for them with a really big roll of what looks like tinfoil?
"Well on Friday night I will fall into that big roll of tinfoil and be put in a cab and sent off home," he told the newspaper.
Tubridy has also said that he hopes to see audience members back in the studio seats when the show resumes in September, and with the government plan on reopening society, that looks to be an achievable goal.
Last night, An Taoiseach Micheal Martin confirmed that from June 7, a number of pilot events will take place in June with attendance up to 5,000 at some, in hopes of monitoring the spread of Covid-19 and managing its containment, as we've seen in UK events recently.
The measures also include provisions from August 5, which allow for indoor event capacity to increase to 200 in larger locations and 100 in smaller ones.
The Late Late Show will be off the air for June, July and August as per usual before returning to our screens in September.
