Pat Kenny has said he would like to be judged after three years, rather than three months, as presenter of The Late Late Show. Whether he will last three years in what's still widely considered the plum job of Irish broadcasting is another matter.
His first 15 or so shows, with a few exceptions, have attracted sustained and vitriolic criticism and 2000 will be defining both for Kenny and the almost 30-year-old show he has inherited. It's an increasingly competitive media environment, print as well as electronic, which is squeezing Kenny. Much of the content and the characteristic tone of written criticism directed at him has been unduly harsh, frequently personal and often as sleazy as the worst of his excoriated Late Late items. He is not only the victim of more TV channels but of a demand among many newspaper editors for caustic copy which prizes punch over proportion.
That's not to say that Pat Kenny's Late Late doesn't deserve some flak. Clearly it does, but the intemperate exchanges between him and some of his critics really are incommensurate with what he's doing - presenting a chat and variety show. They (or perhaps "we") are not, as he would have it, simply "toxic" people, nor is he just an egomaniacal, wooden clothes horse, with the delusions and sensitivity of Alan Partridge. Still, hyperbole and counter-hyperbole notwithstanding, the fact that viewing figures for the show have fallen by almost a quarter on those secured by Gay Byrne a year earlier, has got to worry both RTE and Kenny. Even taking increased competition, the legend of Gaybo and more circumspect potential guests into account, it's a tepid but, in context, not a disastrous performance.
It shouldn't be forgotten, of course, that while Byrne's show had many instances of critical conflict, it also had more than its fair share of ludicrous, unchallenged PR. Given what we know now about Ireland in the second half of the 20th century, old Late Late footage of such as the late Michael Cleary and the still living Eamonn Casey and Charlie Haughey - broths of boys, all - lets you know just how
"real" a picture of Irish life was on display. But Pat Kenny does need a major scoop. Charlie Haughey would be ideal, but, for a variety of reasons not hard to discern, he probably won't take the risk.
Likewise, the legions of high-profile, white-collar criminals who stole from PAYE workers for years will want to keep their heads down. The result however, is that the current Late Late Show seems unable to reflect contemporary Ireland. Not, as I've argued, that Gaybo's always did, but it had the reputation for doing so. Now, however, with scandal mounting on scandal, the average news bulletin seems more socially explosive than The Late Late Show. This was increasingly the case during the later years of Gaybo's tenure too, but he had enough memorable nights to trade on the hook of a permanent possibility of sensation. Every year he managed a few.
Pat Kenny has not been able to provide a show which, in the popular phrase, "set the country talking". It's more difficult now, of course, but he really needs a few gigs in the mould of the Terry Keane or Annie Murphy or Gerry Adams controversies. Even when Gay Byrne suffered, for him, severe criticism over such as the Murphy and Adams shows, the Late Late consolidated its centrality in Irish life. If Kenny can't come up with a few blockbusters he will face greater difficulties. He does, as is regularly charged, seem excessively concerned with pushing through a series of prepared questions, rather than stoking conversation to ignite into controversy. Inevitably, this leads to a sense of bureaucratic box-ticking rather than one of a potential time-bomb ticking.
He also needs to lighten up, and not in the obviously contrived way he attempts to do, because on a gig like The Late Late Show it's not really about being right or wrong. It's not a news story, it's a mood piece. Remember that Byrne used to pull funny faces and do funny accents and allow himself, occasionally, to be the butt of a joke (albeit, always a harmless, Gayboenhancing joke).
Kenny mustn't dream of carrying on like that, but he's got to lose more of the woodenness (there are some mildly encouraging signs) one way or another. But even doing so, he faces an uphill struggle. The role he has taken on is, in many respects, Ireland's equivalent of that faced by the manager of England's national football team. Nothing short of spectacular success will prevent Kenny from being a national punchbag for his many trenchant critics. Sure it's unreasonable, but that's the way it is. Already so much invective has been invested that climbdowns are unlikely. Presenting the Late Late was always likely to be a poisoned chalice, and so it has proved. RTE, of course, argued publicly that it was good business and sensible practice to retain such a proven brand name. Fair enough, in a TV environment of ever more transitory programmes, the attraction of continuity and solidity is powerful. But it should have been resisted. There is a time for everything, and the time to let the Late Late die gracefully was with the retirement of Gay Byrne.
Mick McCarthy must know the score. Like Pat Kenny, he took over from a phenomenally successful and iconic predecessor and in a period of inevitable decline. Sure, both Kenny and McCarthy have made mistakes (and, to be fair, have had isolated but not inconsiderable successes) but it's difficult not to conclude that their biggest mistakes were to chase old glories - other men's glories. Rescue is always considered more heroic than ambition and, of course, it's much easier to improve on failure than success. In an age of commercial totalitarianism, ratings determine too much in television. Advertisers call the shots and want as many punters as possible to see their attempted seductions. That is the reality with which Pat Kenny has to live. He will not achieve the dominance of the original Late Late. But neither would even the great showman, Gay Byrne, were he starting now. For some, difficult to define reason I get the impression that Pat Kenny might very well increase his chances of success if it mattered less to him.
ZEN and the art of presenting The Late Late Show is, admittedly, a peculiar formula to recommend, but Pat Kenny needs a lighter, less self-conscious, more engaged touch and some natural, uncontrived controversies if he is to succeed. He could do it, but the calculating cleverness which has served him well in current affairs interviewing is too rigid for his current gig. He's got a tough but not unwinnable battle in front of him. The next five months will be decisive.
If he can relax and stop giving the impression that he's doing it by numbers, he has a chance. It is, as it always was, after all, just another television programme. If Pat Kenny's not enjoying it, neither will anyone but his rivals and more sadistic viewers.
Should Kenny quit or be ousted, RTE, though currently reeling from fierce and sustained criticism of its solstice and millennium programmes, is still probably too timid to take a gamble on Eamon Dunphy as presenter of The Late Late Show. Sure, he's volatile, difficult and risky, but he has enough broadcasting experience and, crucially, he does carry that old, permanent possibility of sensation. The punters would tune in all right.
Eddie Holt is a lecturer in Dublin City University and Television Critic of The Irish Times.
