A NEW WEEKLY current affairs programme is set to launch on television tonight, with the simple goal of completely reshaping how Irish audiences engage with politics.

Monday with Gavan Reilly will air at 10pm tonight on Virgin Media One, marking the first regular Monday night political show on Irish television since the end of Upfront with Katie Hannon in June last year.

Virgin Media is marketing the show as a more measured and explanatory alternative to existing current affairs offerings on TV.

Fronted by Virgin Media’s political correspondent Gavan Reilly, the programme will focus on unpacking the major stories shaping Irish life (the greatest hits: housing, healthcare, the economy) at a key moment in the political week.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Reilly said the show is designed to offer viewers something different from the traditional political debate format that we’re all used to.

“A core part of how current affairs programming has worked ever since TV was invented is putting a government representative in one chair, and an opposition representative in another, and having them talk to each other and argue out the pros and cons of each other’s positions,” Reilly explained.

“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, it’s a tried and tested part of how current affairs programming has worked since God was a boy, but sometimes people want an alternative to that kind of confrontational nature of programming.”

Instead, the new show will lean into what Reilly describes as a more conversational style, one focused on unpacking issues rather than staging political clashes.

Sometimes you can explain more by doing politics without the politicians in the room.

“You can say things without the rhetoric that gets dragged into it. You can try to unspin and unpack what’s actually going on,” Reilly said.

The programme will air weekly on Monday nights, a slot Reilly believes is uniquely suited to making sense of fast-moving political developments.

“It’s a really interesting tipping point,” Reilly said.

“You’re putting the weekend stories to bed, but also looking forward to what’s coming next – Cabinet on Tuesday, the Dáil returning, committees getting under way.”

He sees there being a clear gap for news and current affairs on Irish screens on Monday nights. 

“There isn’t really a standing offering in that space, but when we’ve done current affairs on a Monday before, during the presidential election, for example, we saw there was a real appetite for it.”

That timing is also part of a broader aim to help audiences navigate what he describes as an increasingly complex and fast-paced news environment.

“It sort of seems like news now travels, and news stories develop now much quicker than they ever did before,” Reilly said.

“People can now get fragments of information so quickly that often the nuance isn’t there that they need.

“Even though we try to do our best in television news bulletins, if you’re only getting to cover a story for a minute and a half or two minutes, there’s always more nuance that you’d love to throw in that you just can’t get there because of time constraints.”

Politics doesn’t have to be confusing… you just need someone to break it down 🧩@gavreilly makes sense of the stories that matter.

📺 Monday with Gavan Reilly | Every Monday 10pm | Virgin Media One. pic.twitter.com/KQJCMx2dXp

— Virgin Media News (@VirginMediaNews) March 20, 2026

Reilly said the show hopes to provide that missing context.

While the programme will take a different tone, Reilly is clear that it is not intended to replace more traditional formats.

The Tonight Show, which airs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays on Virgin Media (and has been rotating through presenters since Claire Brock and Ciara Doherty left in November 2024) will continue to provide the kind of direct political debate audiences are familiar with, Reilly added.

“The Tonight Show still has a really important part of making sure that there is ‘opinion A versus opinion B’, and directly addressing those and trying to thrash out who has the upper hand on those things,” Reilly said.

Instead, he sees his eponymous show as offering an additional layer.

The show will still feature politicians at times, particularly in longer-form interviews, but the focus will be broader, drawing on journalists, academics and industry experts to provide insight.

Appetite for explanation

Reilly believes there is a growing demand for this kind of explanatory journalism, particularly as Irish politics becomes more populated.

“Things are fragmented, and maybe things are a little harder to get a grasp on, just because it feels like there is such a big cast of characters,” Reilly said.

We’re not going to be giving people a CSPE lesson, but we do want to try and just help people understand – here are the relevant people, here are the relevant personalities, and here’s what they think -  so that people come away a little demystified by the whole process.

For Reilly, hosting the programme marks a significant milestone in a career that has spanned print, radio, online (including The Journal, where he started his career as a national news reporter) and television.

“It is a dream come true,” Reilly said.

“One thing I really enjoy is trying to distil things that might seem technical and make them understandable,” he said.

One popular example he gives of his distilling is his ever-popular video explaining the electoral system with Smarties.

Worth another share, for the week that's in it…  How Ireland's PR-STV electoral system works, explained with a 🔴specific 🟠 (#notspon) 🟡 brand 🟢 of 🔵 popular 🟣 colourful 🟤 chocolate confectionery. @virginmedianews.bsky.social #ge24 (Part 1 of 4)

[image or embed]

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly.com) November 26, 2024 at 9:32 PM

The new show, he said, offers an opportunity to do that on a larger stage.

“I couldn’t be more grateful to Virgin Media for giving me a slot and putting my name over the door. It feels like it really is a home that they built for me,” Reilly said.

“It’s a big privilege, and a big responsibility.”

Balancing roles

Despite the new commitment, Reilly will continue in his role as political correspondent with Virgin Media News.

“The sole difference is that, all going well, I won’t be on bulletins on a Monday,” Reilly explained.

“I’ll still be political correspondent Tuesday to Friday, and weekends when needed, that’s the way the newsroom roster works.”

With the first episode set to air, Reilly said his immediate focus is simply on getting the show up and running.

“Right now, success is just getting the first few shows out the door and making sure they do what we hope they’ll do,” Reilly said.

Longer term, however, the goal is clear.

“Hopefully it’s a part of people’s media diets that they didn’t realise they were missing, that they come away with a more rounded view of things.”