New RTÉ TV season to remedy the summer blues

IT might be one of the poorest summers on record but you know winter is certainly on its way when RTÉ launches its new season of TV programmes.

With the promise of some sunshine for TV viewers, the national broadcaster unveiled an impressive line-up of new and returning home-produced series.

Among the highlights for the forthcoming season will be the Irish version of the popular cooking show, Masterchef, which will feature Michelin-star chef, Dylan McGrath and top restaurateur, Nick Munier, as judges for the top prize of €25,000.

Other programmes “borrowed” from abroad will be an Irish version of The Secret Millionaire in which wealthy individuals go undercover in disadvantaged parts of Dublin, Cork and Dundalk.

RTÉ presenter Derek Mooney will also appear in a new series capitalising on the popularity of tracing family backgrounds in the Genealogy Roadshow, while Craig Doyle will be given his own chat show on Tuesday nights.

Hit series like Love/Hate and Raw will also return for another season as well as other favourites such as Room To Improve, Celebrity Bainisteoir, Republic of Telly, The Savage Eye, ICA Bootcamp, Don’t Tell the Bride, Baz’s Extreme Worlds and The Hardy Bucks.

Among new documentaries will be Behind the Walls – a two-part documentary by award-winning producer Mary Rafferty, which examines the history of Irish psychiatric hospitals, and Réabhlóid, which traces the background to the 1916 Easter Rising.

Kathryn Thomas appears to be favourite to host the new talent show, The Voice of Ireland – an X-Factor type show with the twist that the judges won’t have sight of the actual performers.

The former host of the All-Ireland Talent Show, Gráinne Seoige, will be kept busy as she is involved in three new shows, including a sports quiz called Put ‘Em Under Pressure as well as the self-titled Gráinne Seoige’s Modern Life, which examines different aspects of modern Ireland from a woman’s viewpoint.

Seoige will also take over at the helm for the monthly edition of Crimecall along with radio presenter Philip Boucher-Hayes, from Con Murphy and Anne Cassin.

Former broadcaster Mike Murphy will come out of retirement to conduct a series of interviews with special guests.

One of the highlights for children will be the new series featuring Jedward entitled OMG — Jedward’s Dream Factory – an Irish-style Jim’ll Fix It.

Launching the new season, RTÉ’s managing director of television Glen Killane said over 110 home-produced series, including 49 brand new shows, would form the centrepiece of the new schedule.

They include a two-part series on Fianna Fáil’s time in power, a fly-on-the-wall series of daily life at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, and a documentary, The Constant President, which follows Mary McAleese’s final year in office.

Two for the Road will see six well-known public figures paired with people with disabilities to undertake various difficult challenges around the world.

Mr Killane expressed satisfaction that RTÉ had managed to increase its peak-time audiences “in the teeth of the worst recession this country has ever encountered”, with 48 of the top 50 TV shows last season produced by the station.

Mr Killane revealed an RTÉ Player app would shortly be available for mobile phones and tablet computers.

Among foreign shows bought in by RTÉ will be the latest series of Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, The Big C, CSI and The Mentalist as well as brand new series including Pan Am, Missing, Body of Proof and Revenge.