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# Gloves off
Joe Duffy says the competition between RTÉ presenters is tougher than UFC fighting
“When Miriam comes into the building, it’s very rough.”
JOE DUFFY MAINTAINS the competition between RTÉ presenters is worse than UFC fighting, giving a nod to the renowned Irish fighter with the same name as the Liveline presenter.
“Conor McGregor is only in the ha’penny place.
“You talk about Joe Duffy, the real Joe Duffy, the UFC fighter – it’s worse than that in RTÉ, it’s mano a mano.
And then when Miriam comes into the building, centre stage…it’s very rough.
With a smile, the presenter adds:
“Of course there’s competition, that’s one of the things that keeps us all going … sometimes the competition between programmes is worse than the competition between stations.
There is intense competition, and that’s the way it should be. It’s a competitive business. I’m not there as a politician, I’m not there as a social worker.
“I keep saying that to the team, that’s not your job, your job is to make a good programme that people listen to.”
If I think Liveline is just becoming a whine-line than I try to check myself and check the producers … it can’t be just 75 minutes of hand-wringing saying “Isn’t that awful”.
“If you’re getting the same answers from everyone to the same question, well then it’s not going to be an interesting Liveline, it’s going to be a pub conversation.”
‘I don’t watch Pat, Claire or Vincent’
The presenter reveals that he doesn’t watch any of his RTÉ colleagues who present current affairs shows, nor does he watch Vincent Browne.
I don’t watch TV, I just don’t get time. I’ve never seen Frontline, as it was with Pat, I’ve never seen the Claire Byrne show, I’ve never seen the Vincent Browne show.
I’d hear about them and I’d know the next morning if there was something big and if I missed something I might watch it back on the player.
During his interview with us, the RTÉ presenter remarked that even though Liveline has “a very, very small staff” it ”produces more live broadcasting in a week than Prime Time has to produce in a month”.
Duffy said that while he doesn’t watch much TV, he listens to a huge amount of radio:
I listen to the competition, I listen to Newstalk and I listen to Today FM and I read TheJournal.ie and I know what’s going on.
When asked what he does manage to watch on TV, Duffy said, “I love comedy programmes and I love Oliver Callan”.
Read: QUIZ: Which Joe Duffy are you?>
Read: Inside the stories on Liveline: ‘It shone a light and suddenly we weren’t alone’>
