Sofa Watch: Ryan gets ready to roar in tonight's chat show war

AS ANOTHER FRIDAY night rolls around, a bit of light banter might help to break up the monotony.

With the evenings getting darker, there’s no better night to sit on the couch and enjoy some quality chat shows.

• The Late Late Toy Show, RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, 9.35pm

Tubridy is promising an evening of ‘no worries’ during tonight’s Lion King-themed Toy Show – an appealing offer even to the Late Late critics among us. 

Tonight’s show will be sure to offer some reprieve as nothing lifts the nation’s spirits like the chaos of the cars, bikes, and trikes convoy.

For anyone watching across the miles, the show will also be live on the RTÉ Player – if you get manage to get the feed to work you’re not on the naughty list this year. 

Special guests are kept under wraps, as with every Toy Show, so you’ll have to tune later in to see who drops by or jumps out of a box.

One thing we can anticipate is the return of the studio audience. The Late Late shared a video of some lucky individuals finding out they’ll be attending tonight’s show and we’d be that excited too for the giveaways alone. 

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• The Graham Norton Show, BBC One NI, 10.45pm

If you are in need of your Friday chat show fix while Ryan is occupied, it’s still business as usual for Graham.

Leading the lineup this evening is Will Smith who’s flogging his new autobiography, and film King Richard. Smith stars as Venus and Serena Williams’s father in the story of the tennis legends’ rise from Compton tennis prodigies to record-breaking Grand Slam winners.

Also joining Graham tonight: TV host Richard Osman, whose new novel is The Man Who Died Twice; the creator of the Broadway hit Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda, on directing new musical drama Tick, Tick… Boom!; and comedians Chris and Rosie Ramsey.

Music this evening comes from Yola, who’ll perform Starlight from her album Stand for Myself.