TG4 is to broadcast a new travel show beginning next Sunday, but the station is being coy about the details. Because on this show, Buail Bothar, not even those travelling were aware of where they were going until they got to the airport. TG4 advertised for presenters for the show last summer and received hundreds of applications. With more than a nod in the direction of the current fascination with "Reality TV", the first show will use clips from actual interviews with the potential candidates. After narrowing down the shortlist from 60, just eight candidates went on a training course which included psychological assessments. Cameras secretly filmed the reactions of the wouldbe travellers as they found out which five would travel to the airport, leaving the other three behind. As for the mystery destination? TG4 promises to reveal all next week.
Today FM news reporter Colette Fitzpatrick is moving to the newsroom at TV3 to fill the slot vacated by Claire Byrne, who left to work as a news anchor for Channel 5 in London. Fitzpatrick will present the news on Ireland AM every other week - alternating with Brian Daly. The 26-year-old has worked for Today FM for three years, initially as a presenter on the breakfast show and more recently as a news reporter. Prior to that, she worked as a breakfast presenter on East Coast radio - so in theory she should be well used to the punishing start time of 4 a.m. Never having worked in television before, she says she hadn't even thought about it as a career - until the TV3 headhunters came her way.
This week, Weakest Link presenter Anne Robinson said she may leave the UK if her show takes off in the US. The British presenter has signed a lucrative deal to present a US version of the hit show on NBC which could earn her as much as £15 million sterling. The format for the show has also been sold to France, Australia, Italy and Holland. Weakest Link is made in-house by the BBC and has been sold through the corporation's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. The show became a cult hit after debuting as part of the daytime schedule on BBC2 last August. Its success was underlined when BBC1 re-ran some of the shows in the prime time slot vacated by the Nine O'Clock News. BBC1 has now commissioned a new series of the show to be broadcast later this year. The show's popularity in this country was confirmed when Robinson's catchphrase, "You are the weakest link - goodbye", was used on this week's Questions and Answers to describe Ned O'Keeffe's inglorious exit from his ministerial position.
The BBC is to attempt to replicate the success of last year's controversial MacIntyre Undercover with a new take on investigative current affairs called Kenyon Confronts. Presented by Panorama reporter, 34-year-old Paul Kenyon, the programme is being seen as another attempt by the corporation to popularise its current affairs programmes. The four-part series, which begins on Monday, is very much part of the genre of "confronting-the-crooks-on-screen". The first episode - which is on "marriage for residency" scams - sees Kenyon standing up in a registry office, and telling the registrar the couple shouldn't marry, as the ceremony is only to allow the groom remain legally in Britain. Other episodes focus on insurance scams, bogus Harley Street doctors and the perils of buying property abroad.
Maire Kearney can be contacted at mkearney@irish-times.com