[chinamug]

That is a big drop after week one - Patrick lost 396,000 viewers in the space of one week - the novelty has worn off, and since Patrick has been neutered by RTE, with his monologue gone, and the punch and pace he had with his first edition now poured down the rain - the same boring show is back just with hint of a new look and a reduced time slot.

RTE - no wonder they are in the crapper, they have no idea how to produce television anymore. People moan about the BBC - if us Brits had to have an RTE version of the BBC, there would be even more uproar.

It's to be expected, the first week was basically people tuning in to see what the fuss was about. I'd assume they'd be happy enough if the average was around the 450,000 mark. Tubridy's version had fallen off a cliff at some point over the last 12 months as he was down by more than a third year on year, and about half the audience he had in 2019. (2020-2021 can't be counted as it was a captive audience much of the time) Viewership of RTE outside of Sport and News is way down, but the Late Late was one of the biggest losers.

The reduced time slot was practically there anyway. Tubridy used to close the show up just after 11 a lot last season.

It may not be very good but it still gets a large audience and brings in the cash, that's what they really care about in RTE.

I think it was shortened because they're no point going on much past 11. Every Tom, Dick and Mary is turning over to Graham Norton as soon as he comes on. The Audience must plummet as soon as 10.35 comes around. People complain about The Blame Game pushing Graham Norton back to 11.10 which happens a fair amount on BBC 1 Northern Ireland. 

A lot of people in RTE and the independent sector know how to make good TV, but they're not given the opportunity. The whole organisation needs changing. The Late Late is the least of it's problems... for the moment.