The Late Late Show, with its title often shortened to The Late Late, is an Irish chat show. It is the world's second longest-running late-night talk show, after the American The Tonight Show, and is the longest-running live talk show. Perceived as the official flagship television programme of RTÉ, it is regarded as an Irish television institution, and is broadcast live across normally two hours in front of a studio audience on Friday nights at 9:30 pm between September and May. Certain segments are sometimes pre-recorded and aired within the live parts of the show.
Having maintained the same name and format continuously, The Late Late Show was first broadcast on Friday 6 July 1962 at 11:20 pm and in colour from 1976. Originating as temporary summer filler for a niche Saturday night audience (airing at 11:30 pm), it later moved to its current home on Friday night schedules. The format has remained largely the same throughout, featuring interviews, musical performances and discourse on topical issues. It has influenced attitudes of the populace towards approval or disapproval of its chosen topics, directed social change and helped shape Irish societal norms. It averages 650,000 viewers per episode and has consistently achieved RTÉ's highest ratings.
For much of its early life, RTÉ Television Centre's Studio 1 at Montrose in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, was its home; this original studio accommodated a small audience of about 120. In 1995, The Late Late Show transferred to the more spacious Studio 4, adapted specifically to cater for this and Kenny Live. Three external broadcasts have aired, including from the Wexford Opera House on 5 September 2008 and, most recently, from London in 2018.
Gay Byrne hosted the show from its inception until 21 May 1999. Pat Kenny was Byrne's successor, hosting the show for ten years between 1999 and 2009. Ryan Tubridy succeeded Kenny in September 2009 and hosted the show for fourteen years. Under Tubridy, first Quinn Group and then Sky Broadband added sponsorship deals. Tubridy's arrival coincided with a marked increase in audience ratings, with some early statistics comparing him to the Byrne era. Patrick Kielty is the current presenter, having succeeded Tubridy in September 2023.
The idea for the show was developed by RTÉ producer Tom McGrath, after he had seen The Tonight Show while working for a Canadian TV station. He proposed it to Gay Byrne, who became the show's first presenter. The first episode aired on Friday 6 July 1962 at 23:20. Byrne was then a young Irish broadcaster working with Granada Television in Britain; while there he had become the first person to introduce The Beatles on television on People and Places.
Originally intended as light summer "filler", The Late Late Show soon developed into a forum for contentious opinion and debate, involving topics such as divorce, contraception and a number of areas hitherto unspoken. Much of the populace, especially in the south and west of Ireland, had no previous experience of television, and many were unprepared for The Late Late Show bringing such discussion into their homes (large swathes of Ireland were rural and devoutly Roman Catholic). Indeed, the politician Oliver J. Flanagan, whilst guesting on the show, proclaimed there to have been "no sex in Ireland until Teilifís Éireann went on the air", reflecting this greater indiscretion. Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, was confronted by a guest in the show's first series — a sensational and unprecedented event. Many more such events would follow, each contributing to the folklore and mythical qualities of The Late Late Show.
Two common formats were used: the first — a series of interviews of celebrity guests, most of whom could be defined as Irish or British and involved in the entertainment industry; the second — a defined topic involving live discussion from a panel and studio audience. The latter tended to be far the weightier in content, as people who were directly connected with the defined topic sat in the audience.
Byrne would remain host for 37 years, retiring in 1999. He came out of retirement to present such programmes as The Meaning of Life and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?; as of September 2009, Byrne's 37 years remains the longest period through which any individual has hosted a televised talk show. In 1964, with the launch of BBC2, Byrne moved back to the United Kingdom, where his career had started. Frank Hall presented The Late Late Show in Byrne's absence. However, after one year, Byrne returned to RTÉ to present his old show, supplemented by his own radio show.
Few of the 1960s editions of The Late Late Show are extant, as it was prohibitively expensive to use tape to record at this time.
A minor furore erupted in 1966 when the Bishop of Clonfert condemned The Late Late Show as "immoral" and Gay Byrne as a promoter of "filth". The condemnation stemmed from a small item on the show in which Byrne was interviewing a number of couples to see how well they knew each other. Byrne asked the married Fox couple from Terenure what colour nightdress Eileen Fox wore during her honeymoon. Richard Fox implied it was "transparent" and Eileen said she had not worn any nightdress (audio recording). This response was received with laughter by Byrne and the studio audience, with Eileen Fox then suggesting that her nightdress had been white from the options offered. However, the Bishop either misheard or ignored this, feeling the need to protest against this "filthy" programme and the "filth" which was being televised into the nation's homes.
The Bishop of Clonfert sent a telegram: "Disgusted with disgraceful performance", prompting a swift RTÉ apology which the Irish Examiner states was similar to the apology the same broadcaster issued during the Brian Cowen nude portraits controversy in 2009. Meath VEC said it was "anti-national", whilst Loughrea Town Council described it as "a dirty programme that should be abolished altogether". The furore died down after a number of weeks, but is still remembered. When the topic featured on the 2008 documentary How the Irish Have Sex broadcast by rival channel TV3, the Irish Independent's Damian Corless said Éamon de Valera "won't be turning on, but will instead be turning in his grave".
On a March 1966 episode of The Late Late Show a debate was held on the Roman Catholic Church. Brian Trevaskis, a young student and President of The Phil Society of Trinity College, making his first television appearance, criticised the Bishop of Galway, Michael Browne, for spending so much on a cathedral instead of helping the poor. Trevaskis described the building as a "monstrosity" and referred to the bishop as a "moron". He was invited back on the show the following week, 6 April, to expand on his opinions. The student referred to the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising, a pivotal moment in Irish history, when he expressed his concern over the devotion of money to building churches in a society where women who were impregnated outside marriage were considered outcasts and as such were vulnerable members of society. Trevaskis claimed Ireland was not a Christian country and when asked by the bishop if he knew the meaning of the word "moron", he replied that he was uncertain the bishop knew the meaning of the word "Christian".
In 1992, Bishop Eamonn Casey resigned when it was revealed that he had broken his vow of celibacy having fathered a child with a young American divorcee named Annie Murphy in 1973 during his tenure as Bishop of Kerry. Casey was a well-known bishop with a national profile, and had been a guest on The Late Late Show on several occasions. In April 1993, Murphy appeared on The Late Late Show to speak about the affair and their child, Peter. Casey had supported their son financially, but had requested that this be kept quiet to protect his career. At the end of the interview Byrne said if the baby was "half the man his father was" he would be fine and Annie Murphy replied that the boy's mother (meaning herself) was "not so bad either", drawing applause from the studio audience. Casey spent most of his time following the scandal outside Ireland in an effort to avoid media attention, but eventually returned in 2006. More than twenty years later, the Irish Examiner named this one of its "Top 10 moments of Irish television".