Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Chat’s life for Angela
Scanlon starts six-part weekend show for Irish telly in New Year
TRAVEL presenter Angela Scanlon will get 2020 off to a flying start after nabbing her own chat show.
Irish boradcaster RTE wanted a female-led weekend programme and Kathryn Thomas, Angela Scanlon, Doireann Garrihy, Jennifer Zamparelli and Stefanie Preissner were among those to do a screen-test.
But mum-of-one Angela, who’s based in London with her young family, got the nod for the six-part Saturday night slot. A decision was made to cut short
Ray D’arcy’s Saturday night run and give Tommy Tiernan and a new female voice a weekend platform.
Much like veteran Irish host Miriam O’callaghan, the new show will be centred around the Angela’s personality.
The format will be more, light, airy with a modern approach. She will reunite with her former producer David Blake Knox and will pre record each episode before a studio audience.
An RTE source said: “This was never a case of pitching strong women against each other for one job.
“A number of different styles and formats were considered and Angela’s ticked all the boxes. In truth, we could have made all five shows but this is the one that we believe will work best in that slot.
“Angela has more than served her time in the UK and gets this on merit.
“She is fun and professional with a wonderfully relaxed interviewing style.”
Tommy Tiernan will kick off the Saturday night slot in January.
Angela’s new show, the title of which has yet to be decided will follow directy after Tiernan’s run and before Ray returns to the box.