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THE FLUORESCENT GLARE of high-voltage studio lighting illuminates the latest home-grown hero, politician, or international star.
Beside them, an enthusiastic host, nestled behind a mahogany desk, gently coaxes an engaging anecdote from their guest.
An engaged audience watches on, occasionally interrupting the rhythmic flow of the interview with laughter, gasps, or cheers. Meanwhile, the producer warns the host through their earpiece, ‘Time is running out.’
The presenter tactfully wraps up the segment and thanks the guest; the crowd rises to their feet. The show goes on.
From Fallon and Carson to Colbert and now Kielty, the TV chat show is ingrained in the DNA of broadcasting and wider culture. Tonight, Patrick Kielty returns for his second season as host of The Late Late Show. Kielty took the reins from Ryan Tubridy after much upheaval last year.
A bona fide Irish institution, The Late Late has entertained audiences for over 62 years—a feat only bested by The Tonight Show in America. From the former European Commissioner Pee Flynn’s infamous interview about the hardships of owning three homes to the launch of Boyzone, the Friday night ratings winner has constantly remained at the forefront of public discourse.
Viewing habits are changing, though. Back in June, a report from Reuters detailed how online news had become more popular than TV news for the first time in Ireland. Now, all the prominent late-night shows in America air four nights a week instead of five.
Traditional broadcasters are also feeling the pinch. The Warner Bros. Discovery media conglomerate recently discovered it had overvalued its TV networks by $9.1 billion. Closer to home, ITV cut 200 jobs earlier this year, while the BBC and Channel 4 are also looking to make savings, not to mention declining licence fee revenue for RTÉ.
While streamers have experimented with chat shows of their own, they’ve never held the same prominence as their TV counterparts. So, is this cultural touchstone, which was once a visual embodiment of the zeitgeist, now becoming a relic of the broadcasting age?
The chat show, or talk show as it is known in the US, is believed to have begun in New York in 1951. Bronx native Joe Franklin interviewed a variety of celebrity guests and idiosyncratic New Yorkers from his basement studio on West 67th Street. The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson soon followed in 1962 and embedded many facets we associate with US talk shows today, such as the opening monologue, celebrity guests and musicians.
These shows were cheap to produce and brought in huge advertising revenue for the US networks, ensuring that the genre proliferated to virtually every corner of the globe.
As the decades passed, audiences were treated to Conan O’Brien’s acerbic wit, Graham Norton’s Red Chair, and Gay Byrne’s humanity. Oprah Winfrey gave everyone a car, Dakota Johnson called out Ellen, and The Late Late Show reunited a family on The Toy Show.
Major streamers like Netflix and Disney Plus have adopted the format to varying degrees of success. Despite experienced presenters and bankable guests, shows like My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman and Turning the Tables with Robin Roberts lack the frisson of a celeb-stacked couch on The Graham Norton Show.
They also lack the relevance that live TV offers through a timely opening monologue or a topical guest.
Perhaps, the chat show is evolving. Amelia Dimoldenberg, creator of Chicken Shop Date on TikTok and Instagram, interviews the latest celebs as they tuck into fast food. The social media star has sat down with everyone from Sabrina Carpenter to Paul Mescal.
Elsewhere, Sean Evans’s YouTube talk show Hot Ones features some of the world’s biggest stars who chat about their latest blockbuster movie or album while eating increasingly spicy chicken wings.
While these shows are hugely popular, easily accessible online, and very entertaining, they cater to a very particular type of interview. Where else outside the confines of a TV chat show could viewers be transfixed by Gay’s interview with Annie Murphy or simultaneously heartbroken and angered as cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan shares her story with Ryan Tubridy?
Live TV also possesses a certain allure. Anything can happen. Gay Byrne and the Late Late audience were floored when a competition winner revealed live on air that she had lost her daughter since entering.
In a masterclass in empathy, Byrne skillfully sympathised and chatted with the woman, weaving his guests into the conversation as the nation held its breath.
It is conceivable that how audiences interact with TV chat shows may have changed. All the major shows, both at home and abroad, possess a strong presence on social media, allowing viewers the option to dip in and out. Sure, it may not be live, but it was filmed that way.
So hopefully, as trends change and technology advances, there is still room for a polished floor, an eager audience and a well-prepared presenter armed with an arsenal of polite, punchy, and probing questions. That’s all we have time for.
Luke Mulcahy is a journalist, writer and producer.
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Scrap it. Abysmal show.
Very disappointed as a senior citizen I’m not interested in watching tonight..
What a pointless article. Numerous examples of good chat shows with many fans. The reason RTE and the Late Late Show is so dreadful is largely because of RTE’s cozy collusion with the government of the day. They have an agenda which dictates the guests, the content and the message. It’s 2 hours of fluff and essentially a form of propaganda. And to think they used to pay Tubridy €700,000 a year, it tells you all you need to know. Also keep in mind your government recently allocated E250 million a year to RTE for the next 3 years, despite the recent scandals, again, alleging corruption and cronyism at RTE. They are giving your tax euros and TV licence fee to an organisation that then attempts to brainwash you!
@Paddy Short: while I don’t disagree with the show not being great to put in perspective – Graham Norton gets 3million a year with the bbc… brainwashing and propaganda point is a bit tinfoil hat-ish. They try a variety show but doesn’t work on the format. You need a charismatic host (Patrick Kielty is awkward and not charismatic) and you need good acts that are relevant. Act booking is a pretty bad when they have no names and non interesting stories (and can be depressing). It should be fun and easy and chill like the Graham Norton show which proves that type of show is successful. Nobody wants to hear about another child abuse survivor on a Friday evening when they are trying to chill.
Does anyone know why the comments are closed here in relation to both of the articles covering Meehole Martin’s unwarranted, comments in the case of the death of Sophie Tuscan du Plantier? I have long regarded Meehole as a dope but he has reached new lows of dope hood with this one. He has impugned the integrity of the Garda investigation, cut across the independence of the DPP and implicitly found a man who was not charged with her murder guilty of the same. In any functioning democracy this idiot would be chastised by the Head of Government and asked to resign for such a transgression. But this is Meehole so it’s alright.
@Minnie Mouse: so true
@Minnie Mouse: Totally agree with you, the man has reached a new low regarding this.
@Minnie Mouse: Your last sentence says it all. You are talking through it.
Unless you’re able to attract/pay for actual celebrities you’re left with bottom of the barrel types, which is what we’ve had the last number of years. It’s stale. Rte are right not to pay big bucks to land the same standard of guests as Graham Norton, but then you’re left with a show that has very little else to offer. It should be scrapped apart from the toy show.
@ecrowley ecrowley: I don’t think Daniel O Donnell would appreciate you calling him the bottom of the barrel.
@Dave Barrett: daniel is not even in the barrel he is the barrel,,,
@Dave Barrett: But he is!
It’s never been the same since Gaybo!
@ Minnie Mouse. Couldn’t agree more. He is exposing himself as a spoofer and a liar.
The “investigation” of the murder of Sophie Du Plantier was a f up a la the Kerry Babies and rather than posthumously taking a cheap shot at Ian Bailey he should call out the Gardai involved.
D O’D. Sweet sufferin Succotash! I’ll stay in the kitchen and watch the tumble dryer!
Surface level interviews of people seem redundant in the internet age when the same people are posting on social media and half a dozen youtubers have probably interviewed them asking the same questions already.
It’s a nice reminder of what old television was and people will miss it when it’s gone but it’s definitely hard to call it relevant anymore.
A sure some people like it, I think the older stay at home folks tune and enjoy it.
@Ned: I’m of that older generation having been around on this earth for last 65 years I certainly haven’t watched the late late in years I’ve no intention of going outa my way to waste my Fri night on it we have been warned and it gave me time to did out my add free telly 4 the night with loads a sports to enjoy 4 the weekend other than rtes rubbish been passed off as quality entertainment
@Ned: as one of the older generation I haven’t watched it in years. Tuned out during the Pat Kenny era
@liam ward: be god lad looks like you don’t like it or rte but some people do wat h I hear.
@Rebekah Corbett: ya I hear ya, haven’t watched it myself in years so didn’t know it was that bad yikes,
@Ned: No Ned we dont. Well at least I dont. I cant stand the Late Late show
Thank God I’ve prerecorded Jools Holland, can’t stomach the Late Late
I’d prefer inhale the farts out of the cinema seats than subject myself to watching that
@Johnny King: or have your Micky bitten off, as in your avatar. Painful! But not as painful as watching the late late
This is the 3rd article today on this completely 5H1Te show ,
Nobody what’s to watch this total rubbish from rte
Time for it to go. Hold a toy show once year with different hosts. Only time people watch it.
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