RTE: No More Misery Please!

wandererz

At least not during the weekend.

We all have stuff to deal with. Why do you continue to propagate this every weekend?
Everyone needs an escape. Including people who are dealing with problems.

Who has decided or Why has it been decided that the Ray D'Arsy show should be the platform for these depressing issues?

The weather is depressing enough, we all have problems. We need something refreshing on a Saturday night FFS.

The Brendan O'Connor show followed the same format.
Why get rid of him and then do exactly the same thing with the idiot that's on at the moment?

Who makes these silly decisions?

Get rid of this nonsense and start delivering quality entertainment.

Second Toughest in_the Freshers

There's always the off button....

wandererz

Second Toughest in_the Freshers wrote: »

There's always the off button....

Not when I'm forced to pay the TV license fee.


I have loads of other options across the internet that don't involve Irish TV.
As with everyone else i am forced to pay the license fee. So why have to put up with this nonsense that very few people advocate.

Change the format and develop along the lines of Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross.
i.e. Lighthearted entertainment that grabs the world and makes the weekend worth looking forward to.

FFS, we have global superstars in this country. How many of them would consider getting on the current RTE shows compared to Jimmy Fallon, Jonathan Ross, Graham Norton etc.

Don't try to be like them. Just get rid of the weekly depression segment.
Who makes these decisions?? Get rid of them and RTE broadcasting will improve.

Here's a KPI: improve viewer acceptance of weekend programming... by 50%?, 40%?, 25%??? perhaps even 15% or 20%??? Maybe 10%???

Is RTE aware of KPI's??
Is anyone scored on those?

_Whimsical_

wandererz wrote: »

Not when I'm forced to pay the TV license fee.


I have loads of other options across the internet that don't involve Irish TV.
As with everyone else i am forced to pay the license fee. So why have to put up with this nonsense that very few people advocate.

Change the format and develop along the lines of Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross.
i.e. Lighthearted entertainment that grabs the world and makes the weekend worth looking forward to.

Because our lighthearted TV guest is Mario Rosenstock and if you are to insist on a lighthearted format it would end up with us having him on every two weeks instead of the present once a month. It'd be a constant merrygoround of him, Oliver Callan, and the same 2 or 3 Z rate comedians that have blended into one in my mind. We just don't have the pool of guests to do light hearted well!

Skid X

Second Toughest in_the Freshers wrote: »

There's always the off button....

If you follow that argument to it's logical conclusion no-one would be entitled to say anything negative about any television programmes.


There is a place for weekend talkshows.

There is a place for discussion of death and serious illness.

But they should not be the same place.

wandererz

RTE needs to stop looking at the pool of local guests and being restricted to that.
They are going to be paying travel and accommodation costs anyway. Why not get more guests from NI, UK, elsewhere in Europe.

But above all else, STOP THE MISERY.

That should be an election promise. Just get the country feeling better on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The national broadcaster actually does have the power to do just THAT.

ProudDUB

RTE will never be able to compete with the likes of the BBC for the big name guests, but they don't need to, to still have a quality show. We have plenty of interesting people here in Ireland. If they had a host who was capable of doing a decent interview with them & if they dropped all the focus on the 'misery slots' it could be a really great show again, even if the guests were largely home grown.

I'm old enough to remember when the likes of Brendan Kennelly, Maureen Potter, Niall Tobin and John B Keane etc etc were regular guests on the show. They were great guests because Gaybo was great at getting the best out of them. All we have now is some robotic eegit, who thinks that non stop comments about someone 'acting the maggot' or being 'a messer' makes him an emphathetic host. It doesn't.

satguy

Will ask Gerry if he knocks on my door, If SF can do away with this RTE household tax..

It's €4 per week,, and that is about €3 more than it's worth..

Agricola

There shouldnt be one weekly Irish chat show let alone two. We certainly don't have the caliber of people coming to Ireland with any regularity to compete with Ross or Graham Norton so that idea should be scraped. I thought BOC did about as well as could be expected while really scraping the barrel most of the time.
Sadly the serious format of the old Late Late show under Gay Byrne and Pat Kenny has been lost now too, because Tubridy is incapable of chairing a current affairs debate with any degree of authority. He's such a lightweight, he's just about at home with the likes of the Valentine's show last night, but even if something like that was so go off message for two minutes, he'd be floundering.

Completely agree with the weekly misery slot. Fine keep it on the late late show, but if there must have a Saturday night equivalent, for the love of God leave it out. If you are watching Ray D'Arcy on a Saturday night at home, you are depressed enough already!

Atlantic Dawn

I am shewer Joe Duffy would gladly take the full misery quota of guests for a full on misery chat show of an evening.

Strazdas

Skid X wrote: »

If you follow that argument to it's logical conclusion no-one would be entitled to say anything negative about any television programmes.


There is a place for weekend talkshows.

There is a place for discussion of death and serious illness.

But they should not be the same place.

It's a very fair comment. Whatever about the Late Late Show on a Friday, television in Europe (including the UK) on a Saturday is always reserved for 'light entertainment'. There can't be a single country across the continent that would have heavyweight and serious discussions about subjects like illness and death on the country's main channel on a Saturday evening, it just would not and could not happen.

mansize

I'd say it's fairly difficult to get guests tbf

squonk

Let's be honest here. The purpose of the Saturday Night Show isn't about audience entertainment, it's a rather a training slot for the next Late Late Presenter. We've had it before. Kenny Live -> Pat Kenny's Late Late. Tubridy Tonight -> Tubs' Late Late. It's absolutely clear that The Ray Darcy Show will, in time, move to a Friday and be called The Late Late. RTE shouldn't be doing this. Let these guys learn on the job and pick up their skills by jobbing around. Give them a seaon or two on a light show, a season in Current Affairs, a season on a music show etc. There is simply no point in producing a premium level chat show on Friday night for the Big Boss and producing the Aldi version of the same thing on Saturday for the up and coming Gimp! It's a total waste of money and they shoud be called out for it. Personally I'd be happier with a high quality film with no ads, or even one ad break in the middle on a Saturday night.

Thinking back, two of the best light entertainment shows RTE did were the Live Mike and Nighthawks. Admittedly I was pretty young when the Live Mike was on air so may have been easilly pleased but Nighthawks was a genuinely successful mix of light entertainment and serious discussion. I don't think anybody felt brow beaten with the politics or more serious issues and, in any case, Blaithin, Dev or Kevin McAleer was never too far away.

Sam Kade

If RTE had to stay afloat with out a licence fee they'd quickly crash and burn. If it were a normal business they would have to produce better quality programs to keep viewers which would keep them on their toes. Also scrap the grossly over paid wages and replace them with wages based on their performance, tubridy and darcy would be packing their stuff and joining the dole queue.

Red Kev

I think it's agreed: the misery slot should be kept to Friday's LLS. Although why it now seems obligatory to have one I just don't know. It's also fairly obvious that Tubridy is incapable of doing the show. As someone above said: Valentines shows or the Toy Show is OK, but anything more serious he's just incapable.

He's obsessed with the clock and not letting the guest go over the alloted 20 mins, constantly cutting them offf.

Philly McMahon was a good example, he starts to talk about his brother and dealing with drugs and Tubridy gives his stupid laugh and says "you must come back again and we can talk about that".

Philly has a good story to tell but Valentines was a light hearted show, it was moving along well and then they bring in this downer of a subject. Someone has to take responsibility for it, but there's little or no acountability in RTE.


Sauturday needs a show along the lines of the Late Late Breakfast Show/Ant & Dec's Takeaway/The Live Mike. Have a bit of madcap stuff in it, we have plenty of good writers who can do this, but they're not necesarily in the RTE canteen every day.

Get the better guests from Ray D'Arcy and put them on the LLS to boost the programme a bit. D'Arcy can't do the job, we can see that, but I think RTE have him on a long term contract so there's no getting rid of him for a few more years.

sligojoek

Just heard Paddy O Gorman on the radio scouring a graveyard on Valentines day trying to extract tears from people who'd lost loved ones.

squonk

sligojoek wrote: »

Just heard Paddy O Gorman on the radio scouring a graveyard on Valentines day trying to extract tears from people who'd lost loved ones.

That's shameful. Christmas and I'm sure Valentines are tough enough going for people who have lost loved ones without a mic being shoved in their face. I don't want to hear that. I know it's sad for some people. Paddy has the handiest job going I think.

dball

squonk wrote: »

premium level chat show on Friday night

:eek: The Late late is not a premium anything, its utter crap.

Eugene Norman

ProudDUB wrote: »

RTE will never be able to compete with the likes of the BBC for the big name guests, but they don't need to, to still have a quality show. We have plenty of interesting people here in Ireland. If they had a host who was capable of doing a decent interview with them & if they dropped all the focus on the 'misery slots' it could be a really great show again, even if the guests were largely home grown.

I'm old enough to remember when the likes of Brendan Kennelly, Maureen Potter, Niall Tobin and John B Keane etc etc were regular guests on the show. They were great guests because Gaybo was great at getting the best out of them. All we have now is some robotic eegit, who thinks that non stop comments about someone 'acting the maggot' or being 'a messer' makes him an emphathetic host. It doesn't.

We were spoiled by Gay. He could use local theatrical takent to liven up the show (maybe that's missing too) but he could also treat the depressing segments with real humanity. That worked. It doesn't now.

To put the difference between the BBC and RTE in perspective I was once watching Norton and Michael Douglas came on. He had just recovered from cancer and Norton mentioned that, congratulated him, he got applause and we moved on. Later on when Douglas was telling a yarn I switched over to the late late. Amanda bunker, who has lived a charmed life and is generally ebullient - and never despondent on British TV - was crying. Listening for a few seconds it was because she broke up with some guy once, I turned back to watch the cancer survivor tell his funny story rather than listen to that sh1t.

Wasn't her fault. Clearly turbidy needed a misery section so he kept needling her to spill her "horrible breakup".

Agricola

Red Kev wrote: »

I think it's agreed: the misery slot should be kept to Friday's LLS. Although why it now seems obligatory to have one I just don't know. It's also fairly obvious that Tubridy is incapable of doing the show. As someone above said: Valentines shows or the Toy Show is OK, but anything more serious he's just incapable.

He's obsessed with the clock and not letting the guest go over the alloted 20 mins, constantly cutting them offf.

Philly McMahon was a good example, he starts to talk about his brother and dealing with drugs and Tubridy gives his stupid laugh and says "you must come back again and we can talk about that".

Philly has a good story to tell but Valentines was a light hearted show, it was moving along well and then they bring in this downer of a subject. Someone has to take responsibility for it, but there's little or no acountability in RTE.

Probably shows up the limitations of live chat shows in this advertizing obsessed age. Back in the dim and distant past, I believe Gay Byrne had carte blanche to run over time if the debate warranted it. I clearly remember the show being 20/30 minutes over sometimes! That just can't happen nowadays and it's not Tubridy's fault really. They are a slave to the schedules and advertisers.
That's why Norton and Ross's show "seems" to be so fluid and work so well, it's a lot to do with top quality editing work.

Sam Kade

Agricola wrote: »

Probably shows up the limitations of live chat shows in this advertizing obsessed age. Back in the dim and distant past, I believe Gay Byrne had carte blanche to run over time if the debate warranted it. I clearly remember the show being 20/30 minutes over sometimes! That just can't happen nowadays and it's not Tubridy's fault really. They are a slave to the schedules and advertisers.
That's why Norton and Ross's show "seems" to be so fluid and work so well, it's a lot to do with top quality editing work.

Tubridy isn't suitable for the job, they should have kept him sweeping the floors.

Strazdas

Red Kev wrote: »

I think it's agreed: the misery slot should be kept to Friday's LLS. Although why it now seems obligatory to have one I just don't know. It's also fairly obvious that Tubridy is incapable of doing the show. As someone above said: Valentines shows or the Toy Show is OK, but anything more serious he's just incapable.

He's obsessed with the clock and not letting the guest go over the alloted 20 mins, constantly cutting them offf.

Philly McMahon was a good example, he starts to talk about his brother and dealing with drugs and Tubridy gives his stupid laugh and says "you must come back again and we can talk about that".

Philly has a good story to tell but Valentines was a light hearted show, it was moving along well and then they bring in this downer of a subject. Someone has to take responsibility for it, but there's little or no acountability in RTE.


Sauturday needs a show along the lines of the Late Late Breakfast Show/Ant & Dec's Takeaway/The Live Mike. Have a bit of madcap stuff in it, we have plenty of good writers who can do this, but they're not necesarily in the RTE canteen every day.

Get the better guests from Ray D'Arcy and put them on the LLS to boost the programme a bit. D'Arcy can't do the job, we can see that, but I think RTE have him on a long term contract so there's no getting rid of him for a few more years.

The LLS under Gay Byrne had the occasional misery slot but it was never mandatory and you could go a few weeks without seeing one. Having one each on two weekend chat shows is mind boggling stuff, especially on a Saturday night. Anyone tuning in from outside the country would be quite baffled to hear such discussions at the weekend.

5rtytry56

Strazdas wrote: »

The LLS under Gay Byrne had the occasional misery slot but it was never mandatory and you could go a few weeks without seeing one. Having one each on two weekend chat shows is mind boggling stuff, especially on a Saturday night. Anyone tuning in from outside the country would be quite baffled to hear such discussions at the weekend.

And stating what such misery slots are about here on boards can get one into stormy waters.;)

Sam Kade

Strazdas wrote: »

The LLS under Gay Byrne had the occasional misery slot but it was never mandatory and you could go a few weeks without seeing one. Having one each on two weekend chat shows is mind boggling stuff, especially on a Saturday night. Anyone tuning in from outside the country would be quite baffled to hear such discussions at the weekend.

Tubridy's happy mode is jumping around like a two year old and his sad mode for misery stories he drops his shoulders and talks with a very low sad voice, pure robotic. Gay Byrne on the other hand was more natural going from happy to sad mode at least he made it seem as if he cared.

Strazdas

Sam Kade wrote: »

Tubridy's happy mode is jumping around like a two year old and his sad mode for misery stories he drops his shoulders and talks with a very low sad voice, pure robotic. Gay Byrne on the other hand was more natural going from happy to sad mode at least he made it seem as if he cared.

The range of items on the Gay Byrne version was very eclectic. The key thing though is that he certainly never had any fixed "misery" slot. You would often have four or five weeks of light entertainment interviews, with perhaps a couple of topical items thrown in. Also he would only have such a serious interview if he felt it was merited and that it was in the public interest to have it. I seem to remember too that he was far more likely to discuss depressing items on his radio show and not let them encroach onto the LLS.

Not sure how this misery thing originated : did it first start on the Pat Kenny version?

Agricola

Agricola wrote: »

That's why Norton and Ross's show "seems" to be so fluid and work so well, it's a lot to do with top quality editing work.

For me, that's a key point. I simply don't get why the LLS has to be live any more. If it was properly edited, and 45 to 60 minutes were knocked off the length, you'd haven altogether more appetising offering.