RTÉ announces new presenters for 'Prime Time'

Prime Time presenters Sarah McInerney, Miriam O'Callaghan and Fran McNulty. Picture: Naoise Culhane / RTÉ. 

RTÉ has announced a new presenting roster for its flagship current affairs and investigative programme Prime Time, one which mixes more established faces with the up-and-coming.

Veteran broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan, who has been working on the programme for the past 15 years, will continue to host the marquee broadcast on both Tuesday and Thursday nights from the week of April 6.

However, she will be joined on alternate nights by co-hosts Sarah McInerney and Fran McNulty, with the former appearing on Thursdays and Mr McNulty taking the chair alongside Ms O’Callaghan on Tuesdays.

RTÉ said audience levels for the programme had increased in 2021, with an average of 341,000 people now watching on both broadcasting nights to date this year.

The new presenters are already well-known in their own right for their careers to date.

Ms McInerney previously hosted Newstalk's Drive and RTÉ’s Late Debate after an eight-year stint as political correspondent with the Sunday Times.

More recently, she took over RTÉ Radio One’s flagship morning current affairs programme after Sean O’Rourke’s retirement, before moving from that role to helm the station’s Drivetime when Claire Byrne secured the morning show slot on a permanent basis.

She said she would continue to host Drivetime in addition to her Prime Time duties.

Mr McNulty was until now RTÉ’s agriculture and consumer affairs correspondent. However, he has previous experience with Prime Time, having worked on the show as a reporter for five years.

“RTÉ Prime Time was one of the shows that first sparked my interest in politics,” Ms McInerney said. 

“It is a programme that has, for decades, been producing top-class current affairs coverage. I'm delighted to be joining the brilliant team who put it all together every week.”

Mr McNulty, meanwhile, said it was “humbling” to be asked to present the show. “Now more than ever, people need trusted journalism, we need people to ask the important questions and get underneath the many issues facing Ireland at present,” he said.

“On Prime Time, we will continue to work hard to dispel fiction from fact.”

Ms O’Callaghan, meanwhile, said she had been “very lucky” in terms of her Prime Time co-hosts, adding she is “very excited” to be working with the two new presenters. “I know and really like them both, and we are all going to work so well together and get on great,” she said.

Prime Time has been RTÉ’s flagship current affairs magazine since 1992, when it took over from its predecessor, the long-running Today Tonight. Ms McInerney and Mr McNulty succeed David McCullagh, who had presented the show since 2013 before moving to the Six One News.