Pat Kenny

BaZmO*

Now I know at this stage in his career he's become an easy target to pick on but did anybody see the Late Late Show on Friday night?

The guy that does Riverdance was on promoting a show that was being shown on UTV on the Saturday. The show was called "Dancing in the Depot" and it was basically about taking six coach drivers and training them for 3 weeks in the art of Irish dancing for them to perform a live show in front of family and friends.

Anyway, Riverdance guy was telling Pat how difficult it was to pick six guys that had any natural rhythm. And that's when the plank butted in to say, "Sure you even auditioned a couple of black guys who you'd expect to have natural rhythm but they were the worse!!"
He even went on to say it again later on in the interiew.

When are the people in charge of RTE going to cop on that Kenny is a buffoon? Every week there is at least 2 or 3 incidence's of him either insulting some one or just saying the wrong thing. Granted sometimes he doesn't mean what he says the way it comes across, but however you think he'd just give it a break and stick to the radio.

B.

jor el

I think Pat lives in his own little world where everyone laughs at his jokes and nobody ever says the wrong thing. I saw a bit with the rugby guys Gordon Darcy, Peter Stringer and Shane Byrne. Pat kept trying to make stupid jokes and laughing to himself, with not a peep out of the audience or anyone else. I'd have loved to see the three boys tackle him to the ground. That'd be worth the €180 licence fee right there.

I suppose it's only a matter of time before Tubriddy takes over the reigns at the Late Late Show :eek:

Zulu

Pat: he has the charisma of a tea bag.

BaZmO*

jor el wrote:

. I'd have loved to see the three boys tackle him to the ground. That'd be worth the €180 licence fee right there

LOL. I'd pay double to see that!!

Peter Stringer wasn't too impressed with him either. PK was trying to compare him to a Jack Russell but as per usual the way he said it was like an insult. PS had his other 2 team mates giggling their heads off at him!!

I think you're right about Ryan Turbridy though.

B.

chilipop

yeah yet there is something greatly Irish about the eeeeejit

GeorgeBailey

I can't stand Tubriddy... but anything would be better than Kenny so bring him on!

lee_baby_simms

Whenever Pat is put in a light entertainment situation with even a whiff of humour he always delivers a couple of clangers.

in his defence though he is quite a good current affairs presenter.

late late is repeated tomorrow night.i'm gonna tune in for sure

mike65

jor el wrote:

I saw a bit with the rugby guys Gordon Darcy, Peter Stringer and Shane Byrne. Pat kept trying to make stupid jokes and laughing to himself, with not a peep out of the audience or anyone else. I'd have loved to see the three boys tackle him to the ground. That'd be worth the €180 licence fee right there.

I actually saw that (never watch late late these days), an it was the most stilted interview I've ever seen by a professional presenter.

He's clueless about how to relax and "riff" with the subject. The way he dropped in that lame joke about how "this year the wine in England will be made of sour grapes" was pure Alan Partridge. In fact the great Norwich mans timing was far better.

Mike.

littlejay

as dustin the turkey puts it so well
PAT KENNY IS AN INSUFFERABLE BORE.
hate his way of interveiwing.
and his awefull sense of humour

Ray777

I'd give it around 5 years before Tubridy takes over The Late Late. I still think David McWilliams would be infinitely better though. The guy exudes 'cool'. Plus, unlike Tubridy he's not a thoroughbred 'RTÉ man', which makes taking the piss out of him slightly less fashionable :cool:

simu

Ray777 wrote:

I still think David McWilliams would be infinitely better though. The guy exudes 'cool'. Plus, unlike Tubridy he's not a thoroughbred 'RTÉ man', which makes taking the piss out of him slightly less fashionable :cool:

Yeah, he's a good presenter - why is he stuck doing afternoon TV when a gímp like tubridy gets primetime?

BaZmO*

lee_baby_simms wrote:

late late is repeated tomorrow night.i'm gonna tune in for sure

It's actually repeated tonight.

B.

tinkerbell

I can't stand Pat Kenny. I rarely used to watch the Late Late when Gay Byrne did it - but when I did, I always enjoyed it. Whereas with Pat Kenny - urgh! I have never enjoyed the Late Late these days.

As for the Toy Show, what a disaster! I used to love that! Now it's gone all crap because of Pat Kenny.

On a bit of a tangent of the Toy Show - those kids who come on demonstrating the toys. I watched it at Christmas and some of the kids were dressed up in gear that an 18-year-old would wear, it was disgraceful! When I was watching it as a kid, they were all wearing big jumpers, etc. Kids these days are dressing too old :eek:

Sorry for the rant, but I thought it was kinda sickening seeing these like eight or nine year olds all caked with makeup and dressed like they are going to a nightclub.

Telefís

It is incredibly vulgar - Mummy dressing the kiddies up in Tommy Hilfiger and gelling up their hair for the neighbours to see their poppets on the telly. The Toy Show used to be innocent, now it's blatently commercial.

I tend to defend Mr Kenny to the end, but not when he does make an utter balls of things. All I'll say is that anyone can put their foot in it and that Pat is someone that has to grow on you - you kinda have to know how he operates, especially from radio, so you tend to see him on telly in a more favourable light.
He is excellent with debates on the programme, on the exceptionally rare occassion that they now crop up. A greater emphasis on such a format, and more 'normal people' stories would help him and the show out of a hole, and less of an emphasis on 20 min interview after 20min interview with C-list British celebs.

vector

Zulu wrote:

Pat: he has the charisma of a tea bag.

He is the Pierce Brosnan of RTE

lee_baby_simms

vector wrote:

He is the Pierce Brosnan of RTE

that'd be Marty Whelan surely.

carrotcake

listen to the sound file here. classic stuff!

Kingsize

aNYONE FANCY GETTING A "bring back gay byrne" petition going?

BolBill

Kingsize wrote:

aNYONE FANCY GETTING A "bring back gay byrne" petition going?

JAYSUS NOOOOOOO !!!!!!! Just get rid of Kenny but don't bring back Mr Retirement earning 200 k a year stupid american voices cravat wearing sh*thead !!!

angry_fox

Why not give dustin the turkey a go at presenting the late late show? He couldint do a worse job than pat kenny

DublinWriter

I'll basically sum it up - Pat Kenny...why?

To be fair to him, his fortè is politics/current affairs, not Light Entertainment. They might as well have had Brian Farrell doing the Late Late.

Gay might have been truculent and immensely dislikeable as a human being, but by Jaysus he was the epitome of the consummate professional and knew what was good TV from a hole in the ground.

Having said all that, the personal insults are starting to grind PK down.

I remember listening to his radio show a few months ago when one of his production team must have been in an insurrective mood when he passed through a comment from a listener that went "Why do they let you on radio? You have all the personality of a sick-bag". Kenny's response, and I could just imagine him glancing daggers over at the production team was that "I don't know why we let such scum express their opinions, we don't normally do that".

Telefís

You can hear it here, as per the link popped up earlier:

http://www.alan-partridge.co.uk/articles-info/patkenny/patkenny.htm

There's still no one else capable of achieving his Late Late audience though, he has a certain following. You might dispute that no one else has been given the opportunity, but I doubt anyone else could match him - he has a broader appeal than a younger person would have, or more personality driven people like Finucane or Dunphy or others.
David McWilliams certainly is a rising star - I can see him doing very well in the future, he can handle most formats and topics, the person most similar to Pat himself actually...

Ray777

I think McWilliams does have some similarities with Pat Kenny. Namely his ability to chair a good debate. The big difference though, is that he doesn't seem to panic when people go 'off the script'. His calm, relaxed persona and ability to think on his feet, would be an asset to The Late Late Show.

Telefís

Yes - I think 'calm' sums him perfectly - almost soothing...

OFDM

David McWilliams is either being groomed for the Brian Farrell gig or the Late Late Show. They'll stick him on morning radio before long, maybe as a Finucane replacement, but I'm hoping he replaces Joe Duffy, the Pat-Kenny-on-TV of radio, for the Live Line spot.

Ryan TeleTubridy™ is a contender to take over the Late Late Show also, but they have to manage to get Kenny bored with it first - LLS is a bit of a job-for-life gig. But would TeleTubrity have the nuts to handle the hard-hitting current affairs stuff that occassionaly goes with the LLS?

They may want to keep TeleTubrity doing what he's doing and try out McWilliams for the LLS - two shows means more advertising revenue, but how would McWilliams handle the celebrity interviews? Maybe that's why they have him doing his current after lunch show, which is a mix of hard-hitting and light-hearted topics.

So long as they don't give Gerry "7of9" Ryan the LLS - his Ryan Confidential programs are good, but he turns into a gene-deficient Rik Mayall clone when he's in front of an audience (eg that "Secrets" program he did)...

lee_baby_simms

OFDM wrote:

They'll stick him on morning radio before long, maybe as a Finucane replacement,

they've already signed Turbridy for that 'gig'.

BaZmO*

OFDM wrote:

So long as they don't give Gerry "7of9" Ryan the LLS

Don't even joke about things like that!!!!

B.

Telefís

OFDM wrote:

that "Secrets" program he did

And don't ever ever mention that again

Yes good points there, particularly how McWilliams would deal with celebrities - you really don't appreciate Pat till you realise how few all-rounders can fill his shoes!

I'm still trying to work out how he's going to leave the Late Late - I suspect he's getting bored with it at this stage. There's so much crap to contend with, and he's been doing the chat show format since 1987/88. Unlike Gay, I think he'd like to try something else before finishing up.
But moving to anything, no matter how prestigious, will be a step down from the Late Late.
I really want to see him doing current affairs on telly, Miriam O'Callaghan (although good on Nth Ire), Mark Little and all the others pale into insignificance against him. What many people see as the Late Late's loss with him presenting is a much much greater loss to current affairs televison in Ireland, indeed in these islands.

regeneration

In years and year to come, paeleantologists will unearth bones from around dublin possibly pointing to, why, yes; incest in 20th century dublin! but then some media-savvy historian will merely point out that it was the remains of a high profile RTÉ presenter, with all the signs of incest; low intelligence, strange physical features, genetic abnormalities, but is infact the result of mixing the presenter genepool in the TV station.

That channel stinks of cronyism, and were Kenny to be replaced, you can bet your bottom dollar it would be some equally personalityless drone that Montrose seems to churn out (so therefore, it's Turbidy). They still think that chat shows need to appeal to the "nice cup of tea" demographic, or that these people actually like Kenny; they don't! They only tune in to LLS cos of the "there's nothing else on the telly" mentality

Telefís

I'd agree to a certain extent - certainly that is the case with most younger viewers of the show.
With regards to it not being personality driven, I don't think that's a bad thing; it is as much a valid format as being personality driven is. The Late Late has never been such, not that it has ever had the chance, but I don't think that's a negative thing. Personalities are being used for specifically younger people's programming at the moment, not older.
That is not to say the a greater attempt should not be made to introduce such programming - then again one could argue this has already happened with Tubridy; you may not like him but certainly his show is more driven in this respect and people do watch him because of this, whatever about Kenny.

There is a very limited pool of talent in this country, very very limited. That's not to say that greater efforts should not be made to get them on our screens but it is exceedingly difficult. It's bad enough trying to get actors for Fair City, let alone primetime personalities. This is the biggest problem that Irsh television has always faced: this country has a very small pool to draw from, fwhether it be those in front of camera or those behind it.

Pigman II

jor el wrote:

I think Pat lives in his own little world where everyone laughs at his jokes and nobody ever says the wrong thing.

Yes he does, It's called Montrose.

BTw, could we stickify the Prat bashing thread? It seems to come up so often that I reckon it'd be worth it.

OFDM

Pigman II wrote:

BTw, could we stickify the Prat bashing thread? It seems to come up so often that I reckon it'd be worth it.

If David Hasselhoff can have his own board, why can't Pat?

Kingsize

ray darcy would be grand for the lls hes mr nice guy with a grumpy enough exterior, interviewing skills were never really nescessary on the late late plus hes a culchie so bobsyerfukkinuncle!
i was joking about gaybo he was a twat but not as big a twat as pk
i quite liked him on "Millionnaire" though
tubridy is a twat too too from what i know
mcwilliams would be great
all i can say is thank fukk paddy keilty didnt get the gig

OFDM

Kingsize wrote:

ray darcy would be grand for the lls hes mr nice guy with a grumpy enough exterior, interviewing skills were never really nescessary on the late late

Could Darcy do the serious current affairs stuff? Could he do an interview without saying "well done"????

Telefís

He's too light for the heavier issues.
For example anyone see the interview last night with Holly Wells' father? Can't see him handling even something like that, let alone political or more broader issues.
Pat was really excellent - a perfectly paced, incisive, inquiring interview: the facts perfectly balanced with some genuine empathy for the guest. People say how false he is in such situations, rather it is this assertion that is utterly false; he is expertly attuned to such delicate situations and his feeling for the guest is real.

Where credit is due it is here he excels - human interest, news, current affairs & popular debate. Pat rarely recieves anything but bad press despite only a minority of his airtime being at worst standard stuff IMO.
It's always the all-rounder, blend-into-the-background personality that gets no credit when due. It can be a difficult job.

OFDM

RTE wrote:

Pat was really excellent - a perfectly paced, incisive, inquiring interview: the facts perfectly balanced with some genuine empathy for the guest. People say how false he is in such situations, rather it is this assertion that is utterly false; he is expertly attuned to such delicate situations and his feeling for the guest is real.

That's why he's good on radio and why he's wasted on the Late Late Show, where he also has to do celebrity interviews, jovial audience interaction and competitions.

If it wasn't for that Saturday Live series that got him Kenny live, he'd be the main man on Prime Time now - that's where he belongs - give Mike Murphy a heart transplant and bring him out of retirement for the LLS tbh...

Ray777

Feck Pat Kenny - The biggest problem with The Late Late Show is the fact that they can't attract decent guests. Anne Diamond, Caprice, bloody hell. It's sad, but the high-points of last night's show were a man whose daughter was murdered and an alcoholic BBC war correspondent. The Late Late was at its best, in the days when they had three or four interesting raconteurs -all of whom stayed for the entire duration of the show. The death yesterday of Dave Allen was a stark reminder that the great chat-show guests are all dropping like flies... Spike Milligan, Peter Ustinov, Peter Sellers, Dave Allen, the list goes on. Nowadays, people only appear on the Late Late, when they've got a book/series/etc to plug. And even then, it's only a bland, contractual-obligation, rather than an entertaining interview.

Whether we like it or not, The Late Late Show is dying. With or without Pat Kenny.

DublinWriter

OFDM wrote:

give Mike Murphy a heart transplant and bring him out of retirement for the LLS tbh...

Two reasons Mike Murphy wouldn't be the man for the job:

Firstly, Mike Murphy is a seriously wealthy dude these days having made millions from buying, selling and developing lands around the Southern M50 area.

Secondly, some of us that remember the horror (the horror!) that was Murphy's Micro Quiz'm in the early 80's.

Mike is either too fluffy (see above) or too pompous (RTE Radio 1 Arts Show). However, his practical jokes programme (name, anyone?) in the late 70's was a classic.

Well, when I say classic, I was 8 at the time and found wee-wee and poo equally humorous.

DublinWriter

RTE wrote:

It's always the all-rounder, blend-into-the-background personality that gets no credit when due. It can be a difficult job.

I've had my suspicions for some time, but now I'm sure.

RTE, you *are* Pat Kenny aren't you?!?

Pat's already confessed to being a night time web-browser on his radio show. Why wouldn't pay boards.ie a visit too?

I could just imagine the scene in Pilot View, Killiney - "Pat, Come to bed!", "In a minute Cathy, I've found a really interesting site on inorganic polymers".

mike65

Ray777 wrote:

Feck Pat Kenny - The biggest problem with The Late Late Show is the fact that they can't attract decent guests. Anne Diamond, Caprice, bloody hell. It's sad, but the high-points of last night's show were a man whose daughter was murdered and an alcoholic BBC war correspondent. The Late Late was at its best, in the days when they had three or four interesting raconteurs -all of whom stayed for the entire duration of the show. The death yesterday of Dave Allen was a stark reminder that the great chat-show guests are all dropping like flies... Spike Milligan, Peter Ustinov, Peter Sellers, Dave Allen, the list goes on. Nowadays, people only appear on the Late Late, when they've got a book/series/etc to plug. And even then, it's only a bland, contractual-obligation, rather than an entertaining interview.

Whether we like it or not, The Late Late Show is dying. With or without Pat Kenny.

True true true! Its affected all chat shows to some degree, but its hit The Late Late hardest because everyone in the PR biz knows full well most of the Irish population can see thier clients on UK telly or indeed stuff like Jay Leno.

The other point is well noted - modern day celeb/entertainers are for the most part, automatons who are only interested in flogging product.

Mike.

OFDM

Ray777 wrote:

The Late Late was at its best, in the days when they had three or four interesting raconteurs -all of whom stayed for the entire duration of the show.

That's because the current incarnation of the LLS is just a retitled Kenny Live - Gay Byrne had a desk - where's Pat's desk? - I'm fed up of seeing his socks.

Telefís

Leave my socks alone! My sick-coloured ones were admired by Jackass stars I'll have you know!
Did you have to blow my cover DublinWriter, everything was going well up to now

Alas, or fortunately - whichever way you want to look at it - I am not PK
For a start I am able to type, which I couldn't do if constantly pointing my finger at you lot 'at home'

Yes it was decided Pat's first LL desk was too small for him, they thought he looked too cramped behind there which was true - so they built a bigger one for him for the second season which only lasted I think till Christmas before it was abandoned. I, I mean he hated being so detached from his guests by being behind a desk so he managed to get rid of it and return to the Kenny Live format with out anyone noticing.
However I believe this was always the intention - it would've been too much of a shock to ditch the desk idea after Gay, so they went half way with just Pat behind it, but always with the intention of getting rid of it once the media attention swung away from the new show. Bet he regretted getting rid of it when Brigitte Neilson came along
I don't know why they didn't follow in the footsteps of Gay with both presenter and guest behind the desk - it was a virtually unique format, what made the Late Late. Maybe Pat didn't feel comfortable with the idea, or it was felt it was too like Gay's show - like the everyone in audience thing.

Good points about the standard of guests - which is why I think the debate element is so crucial, it offers the show some individuality as well as breaks the monotony of interviews. Whether they be just between two opposing factions or a whole panel with audience interaction, it is an essential, not to mention extremely popular element for the show to revive. It brings popular debate to people who normally wouldn't sit down to watch Q&A or whatever, and very healthily sustains viewers.

So whereas Gay's guests and their unpredictablity is pretty much gone now, it can live on in debate, which bizarrely is practically non-existant now - and as Liam Fay in the Sunday Times constantly pointed out is utterly ludicrous now given that we have never had more to talk about in this country. It is viewed amongst the LL team as just too much effort.

There is a lethargy in the show, an unwillingness to make changes, rather just to stay safe. Every few years a new producer or management wake-up call comes along, but thereafter it sets itself back on autopilot and it trundles along in its safe predictable way. And this is also very much so reflected in the audiences that now attend the show; even on the rare occasion they are allowed to interact, they sit there on their hands like gombeens - bland unopinionated, boring people. The increase in groups of younger people attending the show just for a filler before going out afterwards is marked - perhaps reflects how the programme is now viewed in general amongst the population - doesn't have the authority it once had, not in a 'quick the Late Late is on, make the tea, light the fire, do your hair in case Gay sees us' sort of way, but even the latter years 1998-99. It has become tabloidly, with many mediocre guests, vast majority now selling books in a way that never prevailed before. How many times Anne Diamond's interview mentioned her book...I lost count in the end.

regeneration

RTE wrote:

There is a very limited pool of talent in this country, very very limited. That's not to say that greater efforts should not be made to get them on our screens but it is exceedingly difficult. It's bad enough trying to get actors for Fair City, let alone primetime personalities. This is the biggest problem that Irsh television has always faced: this country has a very small pool to draw from, fwhether it be those in front of camera or those behind it.

It's funny that this point is made around the time that Dave Allen, one of Ireland's greatest comic talents, but one who had to leave the country to get the audience and the environment to work in. Ditto pretty much most of Ireland's best comic talent, and to a lesser, but equally important extent, our general TV talent. But it's not surprising if RTE continues to stick to a rigid template for all it's material and presenters; concerned with the Irish-Mammy-Mentality demographic

OFDM

If they could manage to get the LLS shown on British tv then it could get decent guests - will never happen though...

Telefís

Ah remember the good old days when Channel Four used to screen its highlights on Monday afternoons - they did it for years. Pity it couldn't be revived in some way.
It'd get them to pull their socks up presentation-wise too...

OFDM

RTE wrote:

Ah remember the good old days when Channel Four used to screen its highlights on Monday afternoons

You are Pat Kenny - only Pat, Gaybo, Roll-It-There-Collette and Roll-It-There-Róisín could remember that....

Telefís

Well you rememember it don't ya?

OFDM

RTE wrote:

Well you rememember it don't ya?

Not till you dragged it out from the depths of my mind - now I've remembered crap like Cursaí and Jo Maxi... :eek:

Telefís

I see things are a-brewing. Tubridy Tonight achieved 558,000 viewers the week before last while the Late Late got only 503,000, the lowest it's achieved this season.

It is apparently the first time the show has ever been overtaken by any rival chat show in its four decades on air :eek:
A one-off glitch though - Tubridy's highest figure just happened to coincide with the Late Late's lowest - a show which featured members of the rugby team as its first item which naturally alienated probably 60% of its audience. Combining this with that Irish dancing guy, Ronan Tynan and an unknown author was a recipe for disaster.