Valentine’s Day ‘Late Late’ was just the right side of bonkers, says Tubridy
He admitted his raucous live audience on Friday night was “bawdy” but insisted they weren’t drinking during the show. He said his laddish audience were simply “high on hormones”.
He told his 2FM listeners yesterday: “It certainly wasn’t boozy. You can’t have a drink during the show so it wasn’t like they were getting worse. The vibe was so giddy.
“I think some people can be a little bit po-faced about these things. I would urge them to lighten up or the remote control is never too far away from your hand.
“It was a Valentine’s special. We knew it was going to be a little bit different. It was just the right side of bonkers.
“It was hormonal for sure. They were giddy. The guys were showing off and the girls were flirting and that’s what was happening.
“We started off with 100 single men and 100 single women. It was bawdy and a little bit wild but that’s what it was. It was a bunch of good-form twenty and thirty-somethings mostly from around the country.”
Tubridy did admit he was a bit taken aback by some of the rowdy behaviour during the talk show.
“Every now and then I was in the middle of an interview and I would hear, ‘Go on, Tubridy!’ and I was, ‘Jeez what was that?’
“From the audience. They couldn’t contain themselves for two hours.”
Meanwhile, former Irish rugby international Ronan O’Gara has apologised for what he called a “very poor joke” about his wife Jessica.
Tubridy asked O’Gara about his family life and whether he considered his 2,625-point career haul a greater achievement than raising five children under the age of six with Jessica. O’Gara intimated that his rugby life had been more intimidating than his romantic life, to howls of laughter from the audience.
Tubridy said he was taken aback when the Irish Examiner columnist made the tongue-in-cheek remark.
“I thought he gave a great account of himself. He gave the soundbite of the night when I asked him what was a very innocent question...
“He said what he said. I didn’t quite realise what he had said. It took me a few goes in my head to register that. Apparently my reaction was quite illustrative of what was happening in my head. I think he might have had quite the reaction himself in the following 24 hours.”
While the show veered away from the Late Late Show’s traditionally more sedate atmosphere, Tubridy said the show would be back to its regular format next week. “It was the most fun show to present,” he said.
“I know a lot of people will say, ‘No that’s not my cup of tea’ and a lot of people will say ‘I would like more of that’.
“We won’t be doing that show every week but sometimes you just have to cut the brakes in the car and let it go down the hill and see what happens. Otherwise it would be a very grey existence.
“We had a ball. If it wasn’t your bag, don’t worry, we’ll get back to business next week and the week after, and the week after that we might have a bit more fun again.”
He also explained that controversial English reality TV star Katie Hopkins fuelled even more rowdy behaviour from the audience, but insisted she was not tipsy. “She didn’t have one drink as far as I know. She feeds off the audience. She was heckled and kissed and jumped upon and loved every minute of it.”
He ended his postmortem of last week’s show by saying he thrived on the risks. “It was live. I love that edge and I love that risk on the show.”
