Ex-RTÉ star Claire Byrne has said she believes the Late Late Show needs a shake-up, as she responded to rumours she could be its next host.
Patrick Kielty has not yet confirmed he will return to present the Friday night chat show, but RTÉ’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst has publicly insisted he would love to see him back in the hot seat.
Rumours have already started about who would be the show’s likely successor if the Northern Irishman decides not to renew his contract.
Claire appeared as a guest on Ian Dempsey’s ‘Dempsey’s Dozen’ podcast and said that RTÉ should ‘hold onto’ Patrick, but said the show ‘needs to change’.
Ian directly asked her if she would like to host the Late Late Show, to which Claire replied: ‘Well, I was on before I started Newstalk, I went in, and I was on the Late Late Show, and I had a great time with Patrick. He was just.. he’s such a nice fellow, he’s great.
‘So, I think they should try and hold on to him if they can, but like, it probably does need to change a bit, and needs to be a different show.’
She recalled when Gay Byrne used to host the Late Late Show on a Saturday night, and she enjoyed when people used to ‘tear strips off each other’ as part of the format.
‘There was a big row in that fourth part of the Late Late Show, which was the bit that everybody loved about bin collections, just take anything and they would put the right people in the seats in the audience and just say, “Right, tear strips off each other, there off you.” I love that, I love the energy, I mean, that’s the sprinkle of fairy dust, and it’s the craic.
‘And you know what, on a Friday night, you’re just in the mood for watching people tear strips off each other when it’s not that serious, or it is that serious, or whatever it might be.
‘Or something that might affect or might touch your own life as well. Yeah, exactly. And you feel you want to get in touch, and you remember Gay had the phone, sometimes somebody would ring up from just the general public, you know, it was great. Different times.’
Claire also ruled out wanting to be the show’s next presenter, saying she wants to ‘fully focus’ on getting her new Newstalk show right.
‘But you know what? My focus is really on what I’m doing, and I’m very happy, and I need to spend time fully focused on this to get it right.’
But Ian admitted he thinks Patrick has ‘lost interest’ in the chat show. ‘I think Patrick’s lost interest. I’m sorry, I really do. I personally think he has,’ he said.
It comes just weeks after former Late Late Show host Pat Kenny reckoned Patrick’s split from Cat Deeley may have something to do with the future of staying as host of the show.
He previously told the Sunday Independent: ‘Patrick’s private life may have something to do with his future and staying with the show.
‘His domestic arrangements are somewhat more complicated since he split up from Cat- the kids are over in London, and he’s in Northern Ireland, so that must be very gruelling, so I think it’s up to him.’
