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

Craig Doyle's had too many chat shows he'll never see the inside of RTÉ again. Daithí won't go from Daytime to primetime that quickly ... though Claire Byrne did do it, but I think it is unlikely.

Sinead Kennedy is a daytime host, really unlikely.

I am surprised no one has mentioned Mark Cagney ... or Alan Cantwell.

That's RTE I'd say. Rumour is he was given the ultimatum of behave or out.

When was the last time RTE tried anything even mildly risky?

Like Hector Ó hEochagáin!

Brendan was, imo, a good host for current affairs programming. Somewhere along the way, it seems to me he lost his balls

Mostly by their own employees!

Largely stopped with Gay Byrne. Audience interaction also really stopped with Gay Byrne.

I always thought that Pat and Tubs were afraid of what might be said to them about themselves, a bit of insecurity, I know Tubs walks around for competitions or might have a guest in the audience, Pat might have a quiz with members of the audience, but other than that neither do much in that way of interaction.

Many of the things Gay Byrne had would still work today

1. Phone calls
2. Audience questions
3. Panels
4. Retaining guests for at least some of the show
5. Stand up comics
6. Debates (check out the Scientology one if it is still available on You Tube)

Throw a stone in the canteen you'll hit three cousins sure.

Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in (with apologies to Godfather III)

Think Anton Savage will get first refusal.

I see Indo has a kite flying piece on Scary Clarey from the pen of Noel Kelly.

I thought that she said she wasn't really interested?

What about a bit of a leftfield pick and giving it to Big Joe Joyce? Think of the endless entertainment as Joe boxes the head off yet another guest

How will she handle the likes of Mario rosenstock, especially if he turns up like Claire Byrne. That's the thing will a comedian have to be uber careful with a female presenter in case he causes offence. Remember when Tubridy got in fierce bother for asking one of the derry girls her real age. It was a bit awkward yes but her reaction was over the top.

How about a rotating presenter(s)? Week on week off.

Patrick Kielty would be the best fit. Can do light entertainment and serious stuff, has had a varied life experience and is witty when needed. He's outside the Pale for RTE, but if they had balls they'd pick someone like him. It doesn't have top be an insider.

Dara O'Briain would be next on my list, he's got a lot more time after Mock the Week was cancelled. As with Kielty he can mix humour with in depth discussion when needed. Can fly over here on a Wednesday or Thursday and back to UK on Saturday morning, the rest can be done with Zoom with the LLS team. He'd do that for a couple of hundred grand for 30ish weeks of the year.

The above would be my two outstanding favourites and I can't see anyone doing it better than them. The more I think of it then the less sure if the format suits Tommy Tiernan so I've left his name out.

Sarah McInerney would be the next one, I think she'd be the best shout of the female candidates on it. She can interview serious politicians as well as light entertainers. Not sure how well she'd do with letting them talk, but she seems to be a quick learner.

Brendan O'Connor has lost his edge, he's too safety conscious, Claire Byrne would be the final nail in the coffin, she'd bury the show within 5 years max.

But I agree with posters above when they say the shpw needs a total revamp and needs to look a bit more at its roots. The Tubridy obsession with 16 minutes per guest needs to stop.

Has anyone mentioned “Sammy Sausages” yet?

Byrne doesnt seem to know what she wants. She gave up her Monday night tv show citing time constraints and wanting more family time with her kids as she was doing the radio show Mon to Friday as well. But now 6 months later the LLS job has come up and she wants to go for it, feck off kids!

If she gets the job then it will take up way more of her time than her Monday night show ever did. Unless NK can engineer a way for her to get out of her radio show while still getting that 500k LLS wage. Sarah McInerney then takes over the radio show, a job she should have gotten in the first place imo. NK is counting his 15% salary commissions once he has moved all the chess pieces around a bit and everyone is happy. I havent heard any news of Tubridy taking a pay cut when he finishes up either, NK probably has that sorted as well.

yeah I agree Mondays would have been a long day for her doing a morning radio show and then an evening tv show followed by the radio show again the next morning. But she walked away from that because it was exhausting but now she seems keen to take on the LLS which would be way more work and prep than the Monday night show she had. So it seems like a 180 degree turn on her reasons for giving up Claire Byrne Live.

I reckon if she gets it but still has to do five mornings of radio on top she will leave one job or the other within a few years saying holding down both is too tiring. AFAIK she commutes from Co.Laois as well so thats a lot of miles on top

surely she could just stay in a hotel close to RTE, don't RTE put up alot of their guests appearing on LLS anyway in hotels.

Someone was saying earlier that they wouldn't give it to Daithi O Shea because he is not from Dublin, but sure neither is Clare Byrne or Sarah McInerney for that matter.

I got the impression Claire Byrnes show was cancelled rather than her giving it up. Her ratings dropped heavily and it was getting a lot of criticism IIRC.

Same with Tubridy I'd bet. He lost too many viewers recently. I reckon he was told to go.

Tell me it ain’t so, I thought 2 stars had fell off the Noel Kelly scaffold!

Pretty much confirming Turbiddy was axed.

God knows what goes on in that place. I'd say it's full of petty grievances and big ego's.

Don’t underestimate the communication skills of our top broadcasting executive and bear in mind that you are reading a transcript from an oral interview.

She is trying to convey very mixed messages without exposing their internal contradictions (a skill which is essential for politicians these days)

Her key message is that the world of the media has changed radically over the past 14 years, but she mixes that with lavish praise for Tubridy and the LLS (“a nation in the palm of his hand” 🤚) . I love her line that “Ryan and Tubridy talk about this all the time” , (Yeah, George Hamilton is always skulling pints with Lionel Messi after the big match.)

After her spiel, Bryan Dobson was never going to ask her the obvious question- so why did you wait until you’re walking out the door?

I don’t know if she pushed Tubridy to make way for her favourite or if Tubs jumped because he expected the next DG to drop him like a hot potato and he will never have a time to re-negotiate his deal with RTÉ