Late Late – go? Anne asks if show is past its sell-by date
FORMER RTÉ newsreader Anne Doyle has questioned if ‘there’s a place’ for The Late Late Show on Irish television.
Last year Patrick Kielty replaced Ryan Tubridy as host of the world’s longest-running live chat show, becoming only the fourth person in history to hold the position.
Despite being on the air for more than 60 years, the programme remains one of the biggest in the country and a Friday night tradition for many families.
But Ms Doyle, 71, appearing on Linda Martin’s Dog Almighty podcast this week, said she had never considered putting herself forward for the gig.
She said: ‘The thought really never crossed my mind. That’s a big beast. This is not a reflection of Ryan Tubridy or Patrick Kielty... but it’s gone on for a long time.’
She also said ‘it was a totally different world’ when the programme was at its height in the days of Gay Byrne. She said: ‘You can’t compare The Late Late Show now to then. Those days are gone because there are so many more ways of accessing entertainment and I’m not so sure there is a place for a big beast like The Late Late Show.’ Since Ms Doyle finished up on RTÉ News, on Christmas Day 2011 – the 30th anniversary of her first bulletin – many have called for her to take on her own chat show. But she said: ‘I’m not too keen on chat shows, I rarely watch them. ‘Sometimes I see that they have someone really interesting as a guest and I think maybe I should do this, but then I think television was television and I did it for such a long time.’ Newsreaders who make mistakes go viral nowadays, but Ms Doyle said she’d ‘never been caught doing something’ she shouldn’t. However, she confessed: ‘Even the language I used sometimes is shocking.’