Brendan O'Connor and Ryan Tubridy
RYAN Turbidy and Ray D'Arcy were chirpy and pally at the launch of the new RTE Autumn schedule today, but there was no sign of Brendan O'Connor despite confirmation he will present a new Wednesday night show.
O’Connor departed from the Saturday Night show after a four year stint to make way for D’Arcy, who has signed a E300,000 radio and TV contract with RTE.
RTE today announced O’Connor was now host a Wednesday night “entertainment show”.
But O’Connor’s show won’t be aired until the Spring and he maintains he rarely goes to such launches.
D’Arcy has said that he will have the best guests on his new chat show, Tubridy doesn’t get them first.
The Kildare native will be taking over the Saturday Night Show from Brendan O’Connor on the new season on RTÉ One.
“We’ll have the big names if Ryan doesn’t get them first,” he smiled at the launch of the new season.
Tubridy presents the Late Late Show on Friday night and his producer Larry Masterson says they are fully booked with guests up until February
But D’Arcy said it will only be a matter of time before he goes chasing celebrity guests.
“I think my competitive edge will come out sometime in February, it will be all nice up until then and then it will get competitive,” he added.
Regardless of the competition, the 50-year-old did admit that himself and Ryan do in fact “get on really well”.
D’Arcy said the new show will not be like the Ant and Dec show, but a normal chat show.
RTE announced 53 brand new series and documentaries.
The new season schedule will deliver new Sunday night drama, a new slate of documentaries for Monday nights, brand new lifestyle series for mid-week and new entertainment for weekends along with the best in news and current affairs.
RTÉ One will be bringing viewers a broad range of new factual programming including Recruits, which offers unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to the Irish Defence Forces.
Drama is centre stage in the new schedule. RTÉ One continues its world-class run of acclaimed production with 11 hours of new Sunday-night drama. Clean Break, a new four-part series written by acclaimed playwright Billy Roche with a cast including Damien Molony and Kelly Thornton. And from the makers of Charlie comes Rebellion, a drama set over three weeks in Easter 1916 starring Charlie Murphy, Brian Gleeson, Ruth Bradley, Barry Ward and Sarah Greene.
In Ireland’s Wealth Revolution David McWilliams looks at the country’s wealth gap, while Death of a Son tells the story of how Michael Dwyer was assassinated in Bolivia in 2009, The Boston Nanny follows the story of Cavan nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy.
Hidden Impact: Rugby’s Concussion Crisis examines how this controversial problem can be tackled.
RTE lost out to TV3 for the broadcast rights to the Rugby World Cup and it will be a glaring omission for September and October.
Filmed over eight months, Crumlin observes paediatric care from the point of view of the medical practitioners at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital; Garda Down Under gives a fascinating insight into the lives of the Gardaí who are now on the beat in Western Australia and in Call Back, Joe Duffy looks back on Liveline’s most memorable stories.
There are new additions to the entertainment line-up with the debut of The Ray D’Arcy Show to light up Saturday nights and Mario Rosenstock comes to RTÉ One with a new studio show.
The Voice of Ireland and Ireland’s Fittest Family make a welcome return and Ryan Tubridy is at the helm as The Late Late Show returns for a record breaking 56th season.
RTÉ One’s arts output has been refreshed with John Kelly presenting a brand new weekly series in which he interviews a different leading light in the arts from Glen Hansard to Jennifer Johnston. Other new arts programming includes the story of Irish design in Designing Ireland, Paddy Moloney: Chieftain and Druid Shakespeare following the Druid Theatre Company’s 40th anniversary celebrations.
Brent Pope uncovers some incredible human stories behind ‘outsider’ art and Bob Geldof examines W.B. Yeats' life and work in the context of the 1916 centenary commemorations. New lifestyle series include You Should Really See a Doctor featuring Dr. Pixie McKenna and new RTÉ One face Dr. Phil Kieran meeting and treating people with a tendency to self-diagnose on the internet; a new science series Everything You Need To Know... and One Week To My Wedding, a new series following six different couples in the week leading up to their wedding day. Rachel Allen and Donal Skehan are also back with brand-new cookery series.
RTÉ One’s current affairs slate will continue to be at the heart of the schedule offering in-depth analysis and debate. After a very successful launch earlier this year Claire Byrne Live returns to Monday nights, Prime Time will continue twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays with David McCullagh and Miriam O’Callaghan at the helm along with a number of major reports from the RTÉ Investigations Unit.
Along with Ray D’Arcy, Mario Rosenstock, Dr Pixie McKenna and Dr Phil Kieran, other new faces featuring in primetime slots on RTÉ One this season include Bob Geldof, Anna Geary, Alan Quinlan and Nathan Carter (a new country music series, Stetsons and Stilettos’)..
On announcing his first schedule for the new season as Channel Controller for RTÉ One, Adrian Lynch said: “RTÉ One exists to deliver compelling and distinctive content and that’s what will be served up to the audience this new season with over 50 new series and documentaries on offer as well as fresh series of viewer favourites. From news, current affairs and investigative programming that the nation turns to, new world-class drama, factual programming telling Ireland’s contemporary stories and plenty of brand new entertainment there’s a lot to look forward to on RTÉ One this autumn and beyond”.
Glen Killane, RTÉ Television MD said: “The new season on RTÉ One marks the beginning of an exciting year for viewers. Major events like the 1916 Centenary Celebrations, the General Election, the Olympic Games and Euro 2016 will see RTÉ, and RTÉ One in particular, play a central role in Irish life”.
The RTÉ2 new season and a new slate of childrens’ content from RTÉjr will be shortly announced, while RTE radio will launch their new schedule in three weeks.