Brendan O' Connor in dark over Saturday night show’s future

RTÉ’s Brendan O’Connor has spoken out about rumours he is to lose his slot to an ‘Ant and Dec style’ programme presented by Ray D’Arcy.

The Saturday Night Show host said he had heard nothing from the public broadcaster about the move, but has read rumours in Irish newspapers.

“If Ray D’arcy doing an Ant and Dec style show is what’s required… well look, they’ll decide and I’m sure I’ll find out at some stage,” he said.

“I’d be the last person to know anything that’s going on in RTÉ.”

O’Connor has been presenting The Saturday Night Show since 2010, and admitted surprise that he was not replaced sooner.

“I would certainty never have expected to last five years because I would have presumed I would have done something majorly disastrous at this stage, and I would have been pulled off the air in some kind of national scandal,” he said. “And we came close to a few of those along the way.

“Look, it’s been a great five years. Equally I would say that I think, this year, our numbers are up hugely on last year, I think that’s very unusual in television at the moment. I think the team is firing on all cylinders at the moment and I think there’s a lot more we could do… but it’s whatever they [RTÉ] decide, in their wisdom.”

The presenter and columnist was speaking on The John Murray Show on RTÉ yesterday, confirming he will be back in the presenter’s chair this Saturday following extensive surgery.

“I will be in extreme pain so everybody needs to be really sympathetic and I think they should laugh at the jokes and they should stick with me,” he joked.

Shortly before Christmas, O’Connor suffered a bad fall in his bathroom, breaking his arm. He spent six weeks waiting for the bone to heal naturally as doctors were reluctant to operate, but eventually had to go under the knife, getting pins and screws inserted.

“I was on a reasonably good cocktail of stuff but I think the time has come for me now to start weaning off on to more regular painkillers now… which is I think the most difficult part because, you know yourself, you can get very fond of the painkillers,” he said. “But you don’t want to get too fond so I’m trying to get back to normal now.”

“The good news is if they’ll have me I do hope to present the show on Saturday night.”