Pat Kenny

BuilderPlumber

10 years ago, Pat Kenny was the main man on Irish TV and radio. Nowadays, he is very much shoved to the background and clearly is yesterday's man. I think that this incident cost him his job as Late Late Show host:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ypQyOZq7Eg

This was in his last season and he was probably told that he had to go. Then, he was demoted to the graveyard shift on a Monday night doing the awful and bad natured The Frontline.

Kenny seems to have courted controversy. He incites controversy and it is no surprise that he has annoyed the self-styled republican brigade as these clips show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RD7ypQyOZq7Eg&v=OiIsIE8iT28
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu6d0ns-JJU

The Frontline was not Kenny's or RTE's finest chatshow. It was dreary, dismal, depressing and stressful fare that mostly featured bad tempered debate. It was axed and rightly so in 2013. Perhaps this clip shows once more Kenny not being able to take even the mildest of criticism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8x3sr4cCXE

Since then, Kenny has drifted from radio and TV shows first on RTE and then on Newstalk and UTV. None has really taken off.

The above clips show that Pat Kenny can himself be controversial and attracts controversial individuals on his shows. This is another example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q7g7ENiEjw

I think all of these incidents caused him to lose his TV shows and become more obscure than he was up until a few years ago. Whatever one can say about Tubridy, I cannot imagine him in any of the situations like the above.

His Late Late Shows often dealt with controversy and once he even had al Qaeda sympathisers who praised the 9/11 attacks on. The Frontline was a bad tempered programme (the above clip typified it) and was the ideal vehicle for Pat Kenny's pontificating and for the type of nasty debates he sparked.

All that said, TV is not the same without Pat Kenny being on it somewhere. He seemed to be, for better or worse, a fixture on our screens. Ireland's most intelligent and best broadcaster or a pontificating hypocrit? Maybe some of each!

squonk

I'm in work so can't really check out your clips above but what stood out to me was his LLS Al Qaeda sympathisers slot you mentioned.

We may not like them but they've a veiwpoint too and that's what the LLS is about, or supposed to be about I think. There are plenty of clips from over the years that we laugh at now where controversial topics at the time were aired and debated by proponents and opponents.

Can you imagine Tubs getting some ISIS sympathisers on the LLS these days? Not a hope. We're stuck with z listers, moderately famous people flogging books and randomers filling out the obligatory misery slot.

Technocentral

His Newstalk show is great, no drop in quality.

vkid

Not a fan of his newstalk show at all. I think his drop in tv ratings and radio listeners kind of shows its not the man people tune in to but the slot on a station. Sean o Rourke has held on to a lot of listeners in that slot. Similarly tubs on the lls and he is a dreadful presenter.

Technocentral

vkid wrote:

Not a fan of his newstalk show at all. I think his drop in tv ratings and radio listeners kind of shows its not the man people tune in to but the slot on a station. Sean o Rourke has held on to a lot of listeners in that slot. Similarly tubs on the lls and he is a dreadful presenter.

I disagree, loads like me followed him to Newstalk and discovered far superior current affairs coverage and stuff like Moncreiff as a bonus. Rourke's show is dreadful compared to Pats, plus no more: sports bore Des Cahill, Senator idiot woman and dole vampire Paddy O'Gorman!

FloatingVoter

He's unable to interview celebrities. He has a problem with strong women, be they feisty z listers or traditionally powerful a listers (for example a Hilary Clinton or Christine Lagarde).
He is good on issue analysis on the radio. A gombeen politician crosses him at his peril. The likes of Ahern and Haughey could dance around him in their sleep. No Frost, no Paxman even, no balls.
Gay Byrne could do all the above in his sleep (look up Padraig Flynn hanging himself while Gay supplies rope on Youtube). Brian Farrell must be disappointed with the apprentice (but then again BF never invested in daydream property deals).
PK is not the best we ever produced. Plenty never had a chance. Ask anyone who remembers Barry Lang on the Beatbox the Sunday morning that Mandela got sprung unexpectedly and The Long Walk To Freedom. Now that was turning on a dime from hungover Kylie ****e to top league current affairs in the hour it took to scramble the current affairs crew out of bed. He flies passenger planes now. Safely and well, so I believe.

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

Hosted the Eurovision too, although I can't recall was he any more cringeworthy than the usual fare

paleoperson

I thought The Frontline was above par for an RTE political programme. I don't know why they axed it.

Nomis21

He wheels on to many church clergy onto his show, knowing this will upset listeners and cause controversy when they spout outdated opinions.

That is not good radio.

Jesus Wept

I seriously doubt him tearing up some tickets cost him his job. He also still has lots of jobs with rte.

FloatingVoter

Je suis Mario wrote: »

I seriously doubt him tearing up some tickets cost him his job. He also still has lots of jobs with rte.

It didn't and he hasn't been contracted to RTE in well over a year. He hasn't been employed by them in longer. Athough unless his pension pot is golden, I'm sure he's applying to get back in along with the others who boarded Titanic ITV Ireland.

BuilderPlumber

To answer some of the issues:

The al Qaeda sympathisers: When Kenny had issues like these to deal with, he was at his best. I have no time whatsoever for these types but it made the show interesting at least. One can look at it in 2 ways: giving them airtime or showing them as a warning to the threat this poses. Tubridy had a few years ago a mild discussion about Libya but it was nothing on this. Remember watching it in the pub and it did not grab my attention or anyone else's.

Newstalk and his UTV programmes: did not hear/see enough of them to make a judgement. But when Kenny has the right material, he can be good.

The Frontline: it started off with promise but its 3 main faults were its undoing: its focus on just Irish and just mostly the banking crisis, recession and pre election debates, its often overstressed and nasty character, and Kenny being prone to 'losing it'. By 2011, it had ran its course and issues like 'tweetgate' probably further discredited it. Anyway, by the time 'tweetgate' happened, I was most likely rewatching an episode of Love/Hate at that time and had tuned out of The Frontline sometime in late 2010 I'd say. Yes, there was initial promise but I thought Frontline developed quite quickly into being one of the worst Irish TV shows as it progressed and it seemed to wallow in misery, negativity, anger and political opportunism. It should have been renamed Crankline!

Kenny and his RTE job: Controversy has followed Kenny and has been accused of among other things the following:

-Jumping in on guests before they could answer a question.
-Being wooden.
-Being unsuited to light entertainment.
-Being aggressive, arrogant and fueling anger in his guests and audiences he then was not able to control.
-Losing control and losing his temper on live TV.
-Being a bit of a lose cannon. His reaction to the so-called 'trophy' house and to the woman who would not go to the toy show (rather ironic for a presenter who was never much of a fan of this edition of the show himself btw!).
-Being able to only operate in the political sphere.

There was some truth in all of these. RTE had clearly decided his day was up for the Late Late. The reaction to the woman by tearing the tickets happened in his last season and the fact that many considered a lot of the show to be heavy and political was taken on board. Perhaps, Tubridy has gone in the opposite direction and people are now complaining as much about him as they once did about Kenny.

I think Kenny agreed and was happy with being told to do the Frontline. But this ran its course and was viewed as boring, depressing, stressful and negative. When one saw this on their screen, the weekend was well and truly over. Kenny was prone to lose control and lose his temper and RTE eventually saw him as more and more a liability. He was added to Primetime and this did not really work out and Kenny seems to have seen it as demotion. The truth remains however that presenters like Claire Byrne and Miriam O'Callaghan are much more level headed and tend to have better control.

Kenny: Radio v TV: I tend to agree with those who say he better on radio. He seems more in control.

Kenny v Tubridy, and controversy: Tubridy avoids controversy most of the time. Tubridy has many faults like cliched interviewing but one thing he never does is lose his temper. Even when he loses control, he sort of laughs it off. Kenny on the other hand stokes controversy and when things reach boiling point, he loses control and then he sounds like a mad man. In a way, the 2 hecklers who came on and attacked him are the sort he attracts the attention of. As said, Frontline should have been called Crankline. Tubridy would never annoy people like these it seems?

Go Harvey Go

Let's be fair: the Frontline was little more than Questions and Answers with a different name, PK instead of John Bowman, and a more aggressive approach.

And the damage done to the show by what happened with Sean Gallagher couldn't have been repaired in any way.

I don't think Pat has talked much about the Frontline since - which isn't surprising.

dublinman1990

His radio work on Newstalk is paying off handsomely, according to the media, with over a €400k profit for his media company.

His TV work on UTV Ireland is only a blip in that part of his career. I think doing current affairs for UTV Ireland should a perfect fit for him as he can contribute a lot of his ideas if he is doing GE coverage with them for next year.

Thargor

How the feck did you arrive at the conclusion that ripping up the Toy Show tickets cost him his job? Stuff like that that appears in the papers the next day is what boosts the ratings, they were probably all applauding that auld hag after the credits rolled.

Totally agree about Tubs never going near anything interesting anymore, he seems really insulated from everything. The thread on boards slagging him is the only reason I have the LLS on these days.

BuilderPlumber

Thargor wrote: »

How the feck did you arrive at the conclusion that ripping up the Toy Show tickets cost him his job? Stuff like that that appears in the papers the next day is what boosts the ratings, they were probably all applauding that auld hag after the credits rolled.

Totally agree about Tubs never going near anything interesting anymore, he seems really insulated from everything. The thread on boards slagging him is the only reason I have the LLS on these days.

Ripping up the toy show tickets by itself did not lose him the job. It was this and a series of other things that cause him to be a liability. Yes of course RTE encouraged him to be controversial but Kenny's actions like this and others came across more that of a bitter self righteous man who one dare not criticise. People began to see him as a contrary and boring figure. The enduring nickname for him was Pat the plank. I think he willingly agreed to step down from the Late Late Show post and a new controversy orientated show was moulded for him. That lead him into controversy too but again it was the boredom of it that made people not interested in his controversy and all one saw was a pontificating cranky man.

Tubridy is for better or worse the complete opposite. He started trying to make his show more entertainment orientated and pared down the political content greatly. It is ironic that Tubridy became just as unpopular as his predecessor and, politics aside, his guest and the topics did not change at all.

BuilderPlumber

Go Harvey Go wrote: »

Let's be fair: the Frontline was little more than Questions and Answers with a different name, PK instead of John Bowman, and a more aggressive approach.

And the damage done to the show by what happened with Sean Gallagher couldn't have been repaired in any way.

I don't think Pat has talked much about the Frontline since - which isn't surprising.

It was an attempt to mix the more serious debates of Kenny's style of Late Late Show with the John Bowman predecessor. An aggressive approach and controversy was encouraged. This inevitably lead to trouble and the Sean Gallagher tweetgate issue or similar was bound to trip it up.

He has mentioned it only in the context he was not happy with RTE's decision to get rid of it. He did not seem happy about Primetime.

Could more have been done with the Frontline in 2012? I know they tried briefly to internationalise it with a discussion about the then US election. One of its main faults was its focus just on Irish issues to date and attempts like this and having Sinead O'Connor singing on it were clutching at straws to try and revamp what was a drab show and sinking ship. More could have been done with the Frontline in 2010 surely. By 2012 it had earned a reputation for being boring, stressful and depressing to look at. Besides tweetgate had overstepped the mark and the already unpopular brand was toxic at that stage.

BuilderPlumber

Thargor wrote: »

Totally agree about Tubs never going near anything interesting anymore, he seems really insulated from everything. The thread on boards slagging him is the only reason I have the LLS on these days.

Speaking of which: Tubridy has landed the first of his infamous regulars that his show idolises this week. Yes, oh yes, it is Mr Keith Barry .. again!!!! ... doing his hypnosis thing for the 1000th time!!

The thread about his show I have noticed has been non-existent one week this year until during/after the show and was put up late other times. People are losing interest in his show and even in slagging it off. Indifference to it has crept in.

Demonique

Anyone remember the time he asked a kid if he was going to black up to fit in with dancers in New York?

I was looking for the clip but it seems to have disappeared

sligojoek

Eoghan Harris sees to think he can do no wrong. Either that or he's doing advertorials for DOB enterprises.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/eoghan-harris/let-us-praise-the-peerless-pat-kenny-and-move-the-dial-34201685.html