Late Late claims victory over Dunphy in battle for viewers
It achieved an average audience of 614,000 last Friday versus 295,000 for TV3’s Dunphy Show.
Although most TV critics praised the debut of Eamon Dunphy, RTÉ said it was delighted with the performance of Pat Kenny.
“The Late Late Show would have been in competition with many chat shows over the years such as David Kelly and Parkinson, but this is the first year head-to-head with a chat show on another Irish channel. We were very happy with the figures,” said spokeswoman Catríona Edwards. She said RTÉ was not concerned about the widespread flicking between the two shows by viewers.
“I think this could be a pattern for the first couple of shows. People will vote with their remote controls, as they always do, and make their own decisions. There will obviously be huge loyalty to the Late Late Show and we have 38 shows in the season. This is going on into the winter.”
RTÉ have also dismissed as nonsense reports that Late Late Show guests like Westlife and Conrad Gallagher had been paid to attend.
Eamon Dunphy opened his show by declaring that he had forgiven Gay Byrne for his war of words, but in his TV review for the Sunday Independent, ‘Uncle Gaybo’ made it clear that he was not impressed.
“The sheer hard neck of the little crud! That opening announcement was juvenile claptrap of the silliest kind.”
He saw Dunphy’s interviewing style as “irritatingly hesitant” and said he should stop “telling people things and ask them questions instead”.
The packed audience of 1,200 people in the Helix theatre in Dublin City University was a plus, but Dunphy’s desk was “distinctly odd”, according to Mr Byrne.
“Many efforts were made through the years to get rid of my desk on the Late Late Show - they finally succeeded in taking it away from Pat - but at least my guests were on the same side of it. The Dunphy arrangement gives one the impression that he’s the managing director of TV3 interviewing people for a job.”
