[JMT1985]

I know this is strictly not news, but it is included in the RTE News section of their website, but I have just glanced at the guest list for this week's Late Late Show and oh dear!

How does this show still continue on RTE? Their guest list is appalling, and this two hour live programme seems to be dying each year.

www.rte.ie 

Here are all of tonight's Late Late Show guests
The full line-up for tonight's Late Late Show on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player…
  Source: www.rte.ie

As someone said recently, it seems the Late Late Show guest booker seems to only search the RTE canteen to find that week's guests for the show.

Interesting that during the 2020 and 2021 years of the pandemic, the show used to get big stars interviewed of course through video call, but there were still big name guests. Now 2023, and normality has returned, it is back to the Z list Irish personalities of RTE shows, and non entities who fill that 2 hour show each week.

[EJnutz]

These guests could e more interesting than a reality TV star from Love Island or a boring celeb promoting a film or book

[Rdd]

To be fair, Johnny Sexton is probably the greatest Irish rugby player since Brian O’Driscoll, and he has no RTE connection - I don’t recall him having done any media work whatsoever (that might change once he retires, as expected, after the World Cup).

But yeah, the general point still stands - the show is heavily reliant on RTE personalities, and has been for years. While it’s trading on a combination of past glories and how good a host Tuburdy is (your mileage may vary on that point, and that’s okay) it’s still RTE’s flagship. It fails to fill its running time more often than not these days - it ended about 20 minutes short of schedule last week and that was the Valentines special where they really should have been able to fill that time.

[Gary Baldy]

They had a really good quiz on RTE a while back with Jennifer Zamparelli- Hone Advantage- nice bit of family-friendly fun. And they’ve still got DWTS (also with Jennifer), though rumour has it that the current run may be the last- I hope not- I feel it’s finally found its feet after seeming like “budget Strictly”- yes, the DWTS and Strictly formats are the same but each version of the show has its own unique flavour- I feel Ireland struggled until recently- the COVID enforced break benefitted it. Nice to see so many young dancers break through too- on the UK one, any partnered newbies in recent years seem to be around the age 30 mark, but DWTS’s newbie pros are around 10 years younger than that. Arthur is also far less annoying as a judge than Julian was- Julian was like a knock-off Bruno; whereas Arthur brings his own personality to the table. You could argue Brian is the knock-off Craig, but I don’t think so- outside of being “the harsh judge”, their personalities are very different, but Julian was far too similar to Bruno- I much preferred the weeks he wasn’t arsed to turn up and Darren Bennett stood in. Lorraine Barry the stalwart of the show without a doubt though.

Then there was a singing talent show with Nicky Byrne hosting, and Nadine Coyle, Samantha Mumba, and wait for it… Joey Fatone (!) as the judges. Nadine and Samantha make sense but were N Sync that big in Ireland? He was a very random choice.

There was also a show similar to what ended up being Walk the Line here with Boy George and Jedward- so they’re trying their best to invest in more light entertainment stuff (compared to their counterparts at Virgin, who haven’t really made an effort since Ireland’s Got Talent got axed- it was axed a tad prematurely but Virgin show BGT and AGT too, perhaps IGT was Got Talent overload in the schedules?).

[AJB39]

They had a really good quiz on RTE a while back with Jennifer Zamparelli- Hone Advantage- nice bit of family-friendly fun. And they’ve still got DWTS (also with Jennifer), though rumour has it that the current run may be the last- I hope not- I feel it’s finally found its feet after seeming like “budget Strictly”- yes, the DWTS and Strictly formats are the same but each version of the show has its own unique flavour- I feel Ireland struggled until recently- the COVID enforced break benefitted it. Nice to see so many young dancers break through too- on the UK one, any partnered newbies in recent years seem to be around the age 30 mark, but DWTS’s newbie pros are around 10 years younger than that. Arthur is also far less annoying as a judge than Julian was- Julian was like a knock-off Bruno; whereas Arthur brings his own personality to the table. You could argue Brian is the knock-off Craig, but I don’t think so- outside of being “the harsh judge”, their personalities are very different, but Julian was far too similar to Bruno- I much preferred the weeks he wasn’t arsed to turn up and Darren Bennett stood in. Lorraine Barry the stalwart of the show without a doubt though.

Then there was a singing talent show with Nicky Byrne hosting, and Nadine Coyle, Samantha Mumba, and wait for it… Joey Fatone (!) as the judges. Nadine and Samantha make sense but were N Sync that big in Ireland? He was a very random choice.

There was also a show similar to what ended up being Walk the Line here with Boy George and Jedward- so they’re trying their best to invest in more light entertainment stuff (compared to their counterparts at Virgin, who haven’t really made an effort since Ireland’s Got Talent got axed- it was axed a tad prematurely but Virgin show BGT and AGT too, perhaps IGT was Got Talent overload in the schedules?).

That Boy George-Jedward show was in fact on Virgin Media. It also included Aston Merrygold of JLS as a judge. It was called “The Big Deal”, aired in the Autumn of 2021 and was very similar to Walk the Line. Like Walk the Line it only got one series. I don’t think Virgin Media have launched any light entertainment show since. They rely almost exclusively on their daily studio based shows to make up their Irish produced content quota. RTE are so much better compared to Virgin Media.

[Gary Baldy]

Interesting- it appears you’re right- the Big Deal just seemed more like an RTE show.

Virgin don’t do much light entertainment regardless though, but they did back when it was TV3.

[TVenthusiasm]

Indeed - the vast majority of VMTV's programming (bar Ireland AM, the news bulletins and their home-made shows) are basically ITV programmes. If VMTV has any chance of catching up with RTE, then they should increase the amount of home-grown programming (including light-entertainment shows) rather than being basically more UK-centric than Irish-centric

[bkman1990]

Winning Streak is not returning to Irish screens in 2023. Management at RTÉ & The National Lottery in Dublin are currently working on ideas to revamp some of the games for a new lottery game show format in the future.

https://www.dublinlive.ie/news/dublin-news/rte-winning-streak-wont-return-26262984

RTE Winning Streak won't return in 2023 as Lotto bosses plan show revamp - Dubli…
Host Marty Whelan says he "can't get his head around" the show ne…
  Source: www.dublinlive.ie

That is some real struggle for the show's credibility in fairness. It hasn't been included in RTE One's schedule since the start of Covid 3 years ago. If the management of both parties even try to reinvent the show's format; it would be a miracle to do it on this type of scale.

[Rdd]

It is surely done now. I think a large chunk of the audience have already forgotten it.

[cando]

It is surely done now. I think a large chunk of the audience have already forgotten it.

Or probably died given the age profile of the show 

They seemed to have quietly axed that Ray D'Arcy too. 


Dancing with the Stars was to end this season due to it's huge cost (by RTE standards) but it has been reprieved. The ratings are too good and the replacements that were pitched were all terrible. 

They're making an Irish version of "Who dares wins" the old BBC lottery format but rebranded as "The Money list ".

en.m.wikipedia.org 

Who Dares Wins (British game show) - Wikipedia
Open main menu Home Random Nearby Log in Settings Donate About Wikipedia Disclai…
  Source: en.m.wikipedia.org