Late Late maintains hold on audiences

SOME people might like to knock the Late Late Show but its audience on a Friday night remains rock solid.

Last year, The Late Late Toy Show was at number one with an audience of 1.3 million, making it the most watched toy show in the previous 16 years.

In second place was the Sunday Game and the live hurling final when Tipperary beat Kilkenny. Some 979,000 people watched the match.

Coming in third was the Rose of Tralee with an audience of 916,300.

Last Friday’s Late Late Toy Show attracted 1.4m viewers, making it the most watched show in 17 years.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s state of the nation address on Sunday night attracted 1.2m viewers, making it the second most watched television event of the year.

A review of the top 20 programmes between 2000 and 2009 put the 2009 Late Late Toy show in the number one slot with 1.3m viewers.

In second place was Who Wants to be a Millionaire, which attracted 1.2m viewers in 2000.

In third place was the World Cup qualifier in November 2009, when Ireland was cheated out of the competition by the cruel hand of French player Thierry Henry.

In fourth place was the Eurovision Song Contest in Riga, Latvia in 2003, when just over 1m people watched Turkey win with the song Every Day That I Can.

News and current affairs remained highly popular last year, with the Six One and Nine O’Clock news placing fourth and fifth respectively.

In sixth place was The X Factor, followed by the Eurovision Song Contest.

In eight place last year was Prime Time Investigates — Carry on Regardless, a special report on the lives of property developers in NAMA which discovered how they have been able to transfer some of their assets to their spouses.

Fair City was in ninth place and at number 10 was the Sunday Game Live when 770,400 people watched Cork digging deep into Down to win the All-Ireland Senior Football title by just one point.