RTÉ has no plans to offer Eamon Dunphy a show of his own following the demise of his TV3 rival to the Late Late Show, a spokeswoman for the State broadcaster said yesterday.
Mr Dunphy is to continue as a panellist on the Wednesday night Champions League soccer programme. But "there have been no discussions about him presenting a show on RTÉ", the spokeswoman said.
The much-hyped Dunphy Show, which was cancelled by TV3 on Friday, lasted for 15 weeks in its head-to-head slot with Pat Kenny on RTÉ. It achieved viewing figures of between 151,000 and 400,000 against up to 1,000,000 who tuned into the Late Late Show toy show two weeks ago.
Mr Dunphy said yesterday he bore no ill-will to TV3. Speaking on RTÉ radio's The Sunday Show, he said TV3 was a commercial station and "the numbers have to stack up".
"Probably in a healthier advertising market we would have been fine, and would have been allowed to develop the show over a season. I have no problem with TV3. We did a lower number [of audience figures] than we thought we would - not by much."
He said attacks on the show from some sections of the media were "laughable".
Meanwhile TV3 denied weekend media reports that the decision to scrap the show had been taken by Granada/Carlton, the UK shareholder in TV3. The station's director of legal affairs, Mr David McMunn, said: "Neither of the foreign shareholders were in this country last week, and neither gave any instruction to any member of TV management."
The last edition of the programme is due to be broadcast next Friday.
Mr Dunphy said it was his decision to air the show on a Friday night. Some critics said it was foolish to take on the Late, Late Show so directly.