PK@rte.ie (again). The All New (Patrick Kielty) Late Late Show Thread

😂😂😂 how deep is your love and pk's reply

He was good in kin , role was a good fit for him

Kielty seems to be settling in. I'd say the Toy Show was the biggest hurdle, and he breezed thru that. Happy to see it.

Tuned in a bit into the Shane McGowan tribute, and missed the opening. Then when it went to Dwts I was thinking 'Oh this is gonna be a good 30 minutes of fluff'... he spoke to them for the briefest time. Was pleasantly surprised how short that segment was. Barely ten minutes.

Then he had Take That, and that took up a good 30 or 40 minutes. And it had songs and banter so if you didn't like the songs, the banter was there.

Pleasantly surprised. As a comedian, Kielty has stood on a stage on his own and demanded attention (that's what a comedian does, it's par for the course). Put him on stage with lots of other people... and he lets the guests talk. And by golly, he listens to them. You even saw it with the toy show, he let the kids have the stage.

Tubridy would never do that. I notice too, the audience has gotten a lot younger since Kielty took over. Lots of young men and women in the audience.

He's drawing in folks that normally wouldn't travel for this kind of show.

Town bike?

I didn’t watch it last night but it sounds like it was the Late Late Show at its best – tribute to a national legend, short exposure for an upcoming RTE show, extended interview and performances with a veteran pop group. There will occasionally be a Hollywood A-lister or some other anomaly to draw the casual viewer, but that mix of speaking for the nation, local entertainment and international B-list celebrity is everything the LLS should be looking to produce. Take that or leave it, but stop expecting more.

The tribute show in particular is something that the LLS does very well. There is no other TV programme, and arguably no other platform at all in Ireland, that can act as a sort of national wake. In the same category are the occasional debates – on Youtube you can see Fintan O’Toole, Tim Pat Coogan and others debating an anniversary of the Easter Rising, and Eamon Dunphy, John Waters and Eoghan Harris debating in the aftermath of ‘the crash’. In the event of a referendum on uniting Ireland, it will be a LLS show debate that comes closest to crystallising the national mood. I’m looking forward to the first debate under Kielty, whatever the subject may be.

While I think PK is willing and able to conduct such a debate show, unless something happens higher up the food chain in RTE, I don't think we're actually going to see this style of show again.

With the departure of Tubs and the shortening of the episodes, they have clearly decided to make it a far more compact and light affair and to play to the host's strength with comedy. I really don't see a heavy hitting panel debate happening now, even for an event like a unity referendum. RTE is no different to many other PSB's in that everything is getting more dumbed down, steering clear of controversy and aimed at the internet generation of ADHD viewers.

Obviously the media landscape has changed massively and the LLS is never going to be the national forum for discussion that is was from the '60s to the '90s but it's still a shame this type of programme is being frozen out. Not everyone watches current affairs like Prime time or the Monday night slot on RTE1 so having a place to discuss social/cultural/political topics on the LLS I think is still relevant.

I'll see your Aidan Gillen, and raise you a Barry Keoghan.

I'm not sure I'd say he started off well, but I do remember in the early days of his LLS tenure, he tried to pick up the baton from Pat Kenny and make a passable attempt at being an actual journalist. It was a bad idea from the off. That Brian Cowen interview and a few others, really showed him up for the lightweight he is when it comes to serious current affairs coverage. Cowen toyed with Tubs and made him look like a schoolboy with dreams of a political career asking some "tough questions" of a former TD who's visited his school. It was embarrassing. Trying to take the moral high ground over Gerry Adams was another cringe behind the sofa moment. Ryan Tubridy, the boy prince of Montrose, sticking it to Gerry Adams, who then turned the tables on him by asking him about his own ancestor's IRA involvement! lolz

3 or 4 years in, we did begin to see a move away from the old LLS format and the beginning of the real Tubs era where things became far more sanitized, controversies were avoided and a noticeable focus on fluff content was chased. My reading on that would be that Tubridy himself did indeed understand his limitations and moved to change the show to accommodate those limitations. That in itself wouldn't be a cardinal sin. He had to try to do the job as best he could. The main problem for me was the huge focus that kicked off with promoting NKM clients, often to the detriment of other, far more worthy topics. Anyone who paid any attention to the Tubs era could see that there was a marked decline in interesting guests with interesting stories to tell, a long time strength of the traditional LLS. Instead there was a huge increase in advertising and sponsor promotion, NKM clients visibility and a perverse inclination to heavily lean into the famous misery slots that Tubridy believed would give him sainted status and contribute to high ratings figures in the absence of anything else that could be described as quality TV.

Would certainly agree about PK's natural curiosity. If nothing else, it usually leads to an individual who will be present and engaged in the world and will be able to speak from a position of knowledge and experience. That is always requirement No1 for any tv or radio host imo. If a person's job is to ask questions, why would you give that job to a person who isnt really interested in hearing answers.

I remember when TT were huge in the 1990s, and it was Mark that all the girls in my class wanted to date. Thirty years on, and he's definitely the one that the years have been least kind to (not that I can talk, the 40s haven't been kind to my appearance either...)

Tubridy was trying. He was stepping in to the LLS knowing it took effort. Pat Kenny was better with politics, for sure, but Tubridy was trying.

And then he got lazy. And as you pointed out, started to try and avoid anything that took effort, even if it caused controversy. (And Controversy often gets people to tune in.) But the controversies kept pouring in, without much effort.

There were dog crap episodes like the one where Amanda Brunker got botox (paid on your dime) and a musical guest was literally left sitting in the green room because the botox/ plastic surgery element went over time. And she had a new album out too. (Xpose, which was still airing, did botox every week, so why was this so important? Brunker was probably with NK at the time).

Then we had guests cancelling, and the absolute dross he made of an interview with the lass from Derry Girls, an interview that was cut short cos he screwed it up. And the controversies kept rolling in (singing Irelands call instead of the national anthem, and no Irish flags when celebrating the return of rugby. Is the national anthem and Irish flag that offensive now?) The Toy Show kept featuring less and less toys. But inflated Tubridy's ego. And the misery... jesus, did the misery POUR in... Tubridy just bathed in it.

Kielty addressed Ukraine and Gaza with one statement, in one show. If it was Tubridy, it would have been the entire season of shows. (Remember how he opened the show one time telling us all about the people who had died from Covid that week or month? Then followed it up with an interview with a player who was talking about suicide. Misery upon Misery)

I've looked crap since I can remember, so I cannot judge. They were still getting ladies attention on the night. Many who are probably close to their children's age at this point.

Iz ze licky!

"The undisputed queen of Irish comedy."

Funny, that doesn't look like June Rodgers.

What is the accent? I love it.

Me too! Thank Jesus