RTÉ SCHEDULEIT MAY not have been an easy year for RTÉ but the broadcaster came out fighting yesterday afternoon as it announced its new season with a live showing of Katie Taylor's clash with Mavzuna Chorieva.
More than a million people are estimated to have watched the Bray boxer’s fight and among them were many of RTÉ’s top talent, who gathered to view the clash at the station’s Montrose headquarters.
Ryan Tubridy, who will be back to host The Late Late Show next month, said he was hopeful Taylor would be a guest. “We’ve had her on a few times and she’s great. She came out so lovely and quiet . Then I’m after watching her punch the living lights out of another fighter. She’d be great to have on,” he said.
Budgetary cutbacks may have left the broadcaster reeling in recent years but it is promising great things in its autumn/winter season, including the return of the popular crime drama Love/Hate, and the beginning of a new one called The Fall, which is set in Belfast and stars Gillian Anderson.
Also set to return to our screens for a fifth season is the restaurant drama Raw while other welcome additions include the second series of the US thriller Homeland and a second series of Masterchef with Nick Munier and Dylan McGrath.
Tubridy said the broadcaster has had to cut its coat to suit its cloth, but added he was looking forward to the coming months. The presenter said he believed that with a new producer at the helm, The Late Late Show would be somewhat different this time around.
“I think it’s going to be an exciting year for me personally because it’s my fourth season and there’s a sense of change in the air here but I think of it as evolution rather than revolution,” he said.
The new RTÉ television season features 114 new and returning home-produced programmes, including popular hits such as The Voice of Ireland, Operation Transformation and Celebrity Bainisteoir.
In addition, there are a number of new documentaries covering such issues as education, obesity and teen pregnancy.
In a short series of programmes looking at the education system, the former governor of Mountjoy Prison John Lonergan will be focusing on how we teach our children. Viewers will get a look at how the Government works with Inside the Department, which follows Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn and his advisers as they seek to introduce reforms while contending with reduced budgets.
Four new comedy shows also feature on the schedule, including Barry Murphy’s Irish Pictorial Weekly. Other programmes making an appearance for the first time include Hector Ó hEochagáin’s Hector Goes and the reality shows Football’s Next Star, Instrumental and Strictly Am-Dram.
“It’s no secret we’re facing challenges, and looking forward we continue to face the challenge of bigger and better-resourced international competitors, but it’s not all gloomy,” said RTÉ Television’s managing director, Glen Killane.
“RTÉ Television’s share of peak time viewing so far this year is still at 39 per cent, a share which many of our international competitors would be envious of,” he added.
