Whelan reveals ‘Late Late Show’ frontman ambitions

Marty Whelan has admitted he still hopes to present his own chat show and would love to be the frontman on the Late Late Show.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Whelan, who currently hosts the National Lottery’s Winning Streak programme which returns to TV tonight, said he would love to bring his own “particular sparkle” to the coveted Friday night slot and believes he has the experience to handle both serious and funny guests.

“I’d love a chat show; of course I would. The point is, I’ve done a lot of that anyway over the years. You’ve got to be prepared to take a chance. I’m not going to drop the ball.

“But you do have the Late Late and the Saturday Night Show with Brendan [O’Connor], so where the gap appears is another question. “I don’t think anyone in our business should be prepared to say they wouldn’t take on the Late Late Show if you felt you had some capability. You bring your own particular sparkle or style to it for the good or ill.

“I’m not afraid of the room. The thing is, are you able to deal with who the guests are, whether they’re serious or not. But Friday night, how much fun would that be?”

His comments come in the wake of Ryan Tubridy’s stated bafflement about his failure to be the big draw at home as he has been on the BBC in the UK.

While unveiling RTÉ’s autumn schedule, he said: “I’ve just come back from the UK (sitting in for Simon Mayo) talking to six million people every day and then I’m looking at the figures here of 160,000 (in fact they fell to 144,000 for his 2FM show) going, what is this?” he said.

In relation to the Late Late, he said he was one of the last chat show hosts who is not a comedian.

“It was like other shows once upon a time, but it’s not now, because everything is comedy-based and comedian-host based, particularly in the States and to a large extent in the UK too. From Graham Norton to Alan Carr to Jimmy Fallon to Jimmy Kimmel, all of them are comedians and that’s the last thing I am.

“What we have is an old-school chat show in a modern world that’s still pulling in 45% weekly share, which is unheard of,” he said. While Mr Whelan said he wouldn’t turn down any opportunities, he said he was happy presenting both Winning Streak and his radio show on Lyric FM. “Of course you don’t know what’s down the line. In our game, you hop from one thing to another,” he added.

- Winning Streak returns tonight on RTÉ1 at 8.30pm.