NEARLY ONE MILLION viewers were tuned in at the same time to the first Late Late Show of the new season as Patrick Kielty made his debut as the show’s host.

Figures released by RTÉ detail that the show attracted an average audience of 830,000 people, with a peak audience of 934,000.

The show, which has been reduced to under two hours in length, held a 62% audience share on Friday night, including 65% of adults aged between 25 and 44.

There have been 158,000 streams of the episode on the RTÉ Player, the highest streaming numbers for a season opener of the talk show.

52-year-old Kielty stepped into the hosting role on Friday night to the backdrop of months of scandalous revelations about RTÉ’s finances, much of which centred around the disclosure of payments made to former host Ryan Tubridy.

His opening monologue addressed the ongoing controversy head on, quipping that the Late Late Show would be trying out a format where the host “asks the questions, instead of answering them in front of an Oireachtas committee”.

Guests included former President of Ireland Mary McAleese and footballer James McClean.