Ryan Tubridy to step down from Late Late role when season ends

Think BoC had family stuff at the time iirc which precluded him from going for it.

I think he is too old and dry at this stage.

Think Tommy is good but maybe too old and too nervous for it.

Enoch Burke is looking for a job, maybe he might get it.

heard him on RTE radio 1 yday - he just feels its time to leave the party.. and he's 49... doesn't wanna be there at 50..

Well I never thought I'd live to see the day. I always believed Tubs would be waked on the Late Late Show set in about 30 years time, literally carried out on his final show. Upon hearing the news, I fell to my knees, arms outstretched to the sky, like Andy Dufresne after crawling through that river of shít!

After reading this thread, I fully agree with the posters who said he was given his cards a while back and RTE are now letting him "resign" with a bit of honour. It's long, long overdue. I'm sure he's a good son, a good Dad and an alright fella in the real world, but as a talkshow host he was about as out of his depth as anyone can be in their job. Pat Kenny's LLS wasn't of the standard of his predecessor but at least Kenny had core competencies which gave him an edge at least some of the time he was on air, namely politics, current affairs and societal/cultural issues. Apart from the Toy Show, which he cleverly turned into a behemoth during his tenure, Ryan Tubridy was effectively riding in the Grand National every weekend, without a horse to sit on. Poor with both serious and light entertainment, he decided to turn a once great Irish television institution, where the topics of the day were discussed robustly amongst major figures of Irish life, into a smalltime, parochial bastion of tedium. Tubridy's Late Late became a vehicle for Z listers, the relentless exploitation of unfortunate ordinary people with deeply sad stories and a weird fetish for bad Irish country music and the Eurovision.

At all times, he was wooden, nervy and uncomfortable in the mere act of interviewing people and always displayed both a lack of curiousness and an unwillingness to properly prepare for his guests by actually doing the research and asking pertinent questions. Turbridy was, what he was. The teenage teaboy who got the top job because he was there a long time and was friendly with the right people, not because he was the best candidate to front a live talk show.

As for the new host, I'd count Tommy Tiernan out straight away. The host of the LLS is not going to be given to a comedian with a penchant for going off script regularly. The job is going to require someone who can actually handle serious topics and interview serious people from a journalistic perspective with the aim of educating the audience. While Tommy does well with the version of serious he dips into on his own show, it's not the same ballgame as what the LLS host will deal with. Probably more pertinent is that the commitment required from Tommy would be far too much as it would effectively end his comedy career.

Claire Byrne ticks the boxes for age, gender, photogenic, and would be accomplished with the topics which made the old LLS great, current affairs. Many have said she's unproven with light entertainment, but she wouldnt be a complete novice in that respect as she put in many years at TV3 doing that kind of material before moving into current affairs. She seems a far more personable and less self regarding individual that Tubridy, so I doubt she would struggle to do fluff interviews.

My pick would be Brendan O' Connor. Has the TV experience. Does a similar gig successfully on radio. Is comfortable with serious and light topics. Brendan does seem to have that crucial quality needed in a good interviewer, he is intellectually curious and interested in people and what makes them tick. I remember him interviewing Noel Gallagher on his own talkshow years ago. As evidence by his appearance with Tubridy, a bad Noel Gallagher interview is like watching paint dry and it's very obvious when he is bored or finds the questions rote. No such trouble for O' Connor. He gently poked at Gallagher's ego and rockstar persona while still asking good questions which the viewer at home would want to know ie "Is Bono an awful bollocks really?" etc :D Brendan was well able to fulfil the main criteria for any Noel Gallagher inteview.....Let Noel be Noel. Wind him up and let him off.

Of course, whoever gets it, it wont be a meritocratic choice. It WILL be a woman for definite and I could easily see them choose a rank outsider, like Katryn Thomas.

Whatever happens, it's a good day!

Will Ryan go back to presenting 'Going For Gold'?

#oldjokesarethebest

The audience look like they’re being forced to clap along with the band at gunpoint. That’s another thing that needs to go, the forced atmosphere

True dat. Isn’t he Beamon Andrews grandnephew or something? Obviously the tv presentation gene didn’t reach her passed in though.

Six nations shîte. Yawn. Who cares? There are plenty of outlets for this malarkey elsewhere so this rubbish is another item they should kill off with the new presenter. Most sports people are really boring being interviewed, trotting it the sage oul’ none sense over and over and it’s hardly life and death stuff now is it?

also George Murphy deserves a permaban from the RTE campus. This is just shîte tv right now.

By contrast TG4 is wall to wall music which I think is better for a day like this. No pub bands either unlike the LLS. I think the whole production staff need to be moved off along with Tubbs. I’d say it’s not entirely his fault.

I see a lot of people mentioning Panti, but no one considers Rory O'Neill...

When I first read about Tubridy leaving The Late Late Show for good; it left me very surprised. He must have that incline in him to leave it behind him before he hits 50.

His era of presenting the LLS has not been the best one in my eyes. He had struggled to maintain a good aurora when he was in the hotseat.

The only time he had made sense in the role was when he was doing the Toy Show. His last Toy Show from last year was great. It was one of his best ones that I had watched in years.

However when I had watched his regular shows including some of his specials for the adults. It does say a lot about his presence in the show that it was not going to last forever.

It portrayed a very big message to us that the writing was already on the wall whenever he had the courage to to say that his time was up.

His knew that his product was becoming very stale to the masses and he would eventually into get his taxi and leave behind his late late role for good.

It was never easy for me to see it decline in such a manner in such a short space of time.

It is now becoming a really good moment for everyone to answer the question of whether the LLS should last on RTÉ's television landscape into the 2030's & beyond that.

I normally do not like change because I like sticking with tried & tested methods as they give me familiarity.

But when a product becomes stale after doing it for so long. It does get to you after a while.

To drum up any sort of excitement back in the pre-internet era here in Ireland; the LLS as a television brand had to be the first major stepping stone to get you recognised in this country.

Now you could have the potential to get recognised with other means of communication first like YouTube, Tiktok, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram & so on.

The Late Late Show in today's times is now regarded as something that is now a relic of a bygone era.

And whether a new change in both the format and presenter will give it any credibility in future is entirely on RTÉ's shoulders. What could they do with it when the product is dying in their arms. Do they give it further life support or do they set it free?

It is their choice now as the ball is in their court.

RTE have stuck with the same old faces for decades,now they've run out of faces.