High hopes for next Late Late host

I HAVE to confess to a feeling of relief and gratitude when I heard the announcement that Pat Kenny is departing the Late Late Show at the end of the current season.

Sat, 04 Apr, 2009 - 01:00

Letters

I had always found it puzzling that the powers that be in Montrose never saw fit to intervene over the last 10 years to try to arrest the unquestionable deterioration of quality in their purported flagship show.

I don’t mean to be unfair to Mr Kenny whose professionalism, intelligence and analytical skills are beyond question but the monotony of the format left far too much to be desired.

For example, the archetypical Late Late show almost every week uninterrupted, for Mr Kenny’s full 10-year tenure consisted of the following:

Part 1: Typically, this was an unashamed incestuous advertisement for some other up-coming RTÉ program usually of the reality TV variety.

Part 2: Usually an interview with a guest or guests who were almost always taken from the following drawer; Louis Walsh, one or more of Boyzone, one or more of Westlife, Bertie Ahern and Celia Ahern.

Part 3: This would consist of an interview with some chef or other with a middle-class English accent whose name meant nothing to anybody who didn’t have Sky TV.

Part 4: Usually a contrived and moribund debate, which, despite Mr. Kenny pulling out all the stops to make memorable, had all but vanished from the viewers consciousness even before Mr. Kenny wished his audience a goodnight at the end of the show.

Mr Kenny appeared so reluctant to deviate from this rigid format, absolutely nothing new, original, fresh or untested was seemingly allowed to feature on the show and consequently no new acts were ever “broken in” or launched to the Irish public such as what Gay Byrne did, to his eternal credit, with the likes of Brendan O’Carroll, Tommy Tiernan and many more all of whom were largely unknowns until featuring on the Late Late show.

The good news for Mr. Kenny’s replacement is that only way is up.

Kevin Fitzsimons

Knockrour

Kilbehenny

Mitchelstown

Co Cork