RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

I actually enjoyed the format of the quiz show.

Rapid fire questions and no waiting for 3 minutes while someone decides on A, B, C, or D; (It's why I like aspects of The Weakest Link, University Challenge and Mastermind). I also liked the format of going from 3 to 2 contestants.

On the negative side, the studio was overdone and Claire Byrne was a thoroughly wooden host. She has 4 poses and hand motions and that's it. Zero charisma. The small talk she tried in the later rounds was terrible as well.

She got the gig as RTE had to pay her anyway for TV work after they cancelled her TV show. They should try someone else next year. Normally once your TV show doesn't work then you're out of a job, but I'd say her wily agent covered her for that. If it's not the case and she got it from NK pressure, then that wouldn't surprise me at all either. Shows the cosy house that RTE is.

Did she jump or was she pushed, I wonder?

The first few shows of the new season suffered due to being too similar to the dreck we have been served for the last decade. Maybe Kielty is using his influence to push for some changes to the overall format.

Fascinating development with the departure of this producer. It reads like they were trying to steer PK down a similar path to Tubs. Light, fluff TV, controversial topics avoided at all costs etc and he may not be that amenable to it.

Could it be that PK's natural inclination is to try to steer the LLS back onto it's original course, with...............god help us...........some actual depth?

Reading the report it appears she is still RTE staff, so it is not as if she walked out the door. More like a move to the RTE version of An Post's Rubber Room.

He did?

And PK’s idea of adding “more depth” to the LLS was to interview an ex-boxer without asking him about his management’s links to Ireland’s leading crime syndicate.😨

Is he still on Lyric?

The same rubbish. Chat shows have had their day.

The sudden and unexplained departure of the LLS Executive Producer is a devastating blow to RTE's efforts to revive its flagging flagship. The official line had been that PK had made a very successful start to his LLS career. So why ditch the top LLS executive unceremoniously yesterday?

Something dramatic must have happened in recent days but the media, and especially our "public broadcaster" are the most opaque and paranoid of organisations (remember that when you hear journalists demanding "full transparency" for everything and anything"). RTE hasn't offered an explanation to the dwindling number of its licence fee payers. Not even a leak from "unnamed sources close to the programme". I think the Sun is getting its quotes from PK's camp.

If the Executive Producer was a man, I would have guessed at a claim of sexual harassment but, in this case, I can think of only one issue which could have resulted in this dramatic change - the media backlash over the failure to ask Carl Frampton about his links to the Kinahan crime gang.

I could see two possible scenarios:

1. The LLS has sunk to a level where even B-list guests with books to promote can block any question they don't like ("full transparency" 😡). PK was embarrassed when the media called him out for the Frampton interview and insisted on a new Executive Producer who would stand up to would-be guests and leave PK free to manage the interview.
2. PK was in control of Frampton's LLS appearance from the get go. He wanted to promote Frampton's book (for which he wrote the preface) and didn't want to spoil the effect by reminding LLS viewers about the Kinahans and the drugs crisis plaguing this country. When the media backlash started, the Executive Producer tried to assert herself but PK insisted he has editorial control. Bakhurst back PK and found him a new, more compliant Executive Producer (does his contract give PK editorial control? No producer would dare second-guess Gaybo but what about Tubs?)

Either way, the LLS has been holed below the waterline. No A-lister will want to get into a show where the presenter is at war with the show's executives. Not that the LLS was troubled by A-listers in recent decades. Ordinary guests should be very wary - PK will want to show that he can ask the tough questions (except for his BFFs).

Callans Kicks did a great take on RTE.

When they said dozens tuned in instead of hundreds tuned in, you know the audience figure was way less than 100. Tubs star has really fallen.

They still have a major hard on for Tubs.

I think the Independent are being very hard on Patrick about the interview with Carl Frampton.

The reality is Carl always complied with the law. That’s the truth. To expect a boxer to hold a company to a higher standard than the authorities is unfair and unrealistic. It doesn’t make him a Kinahan sympathiser.

The likes of Ben Davison and Johnny Nelson personally endorsing Daniel Kinahan is totally different.