Rumours had swirled earlier this summer that Ryan Tubridy would be returning to Irish television.
The former Late Late Show presenter left RTÉ over two years ago and relocated to London at the start of 2024.
He has been working on Virgin Radio in the UK and has been away from cameras since 2023.
Now it has been confirmed that he will make his return to our screens.
Speaking to VIP Magazine at the launch of the autumn season of Virgin Media, Muireann O’Connell beamed as she said: “I can confirm that Ryan Tubridy is one of the interviewees on The Assembly.”
Muireann is the host of the Irish version of The Assembly which sees well known faces be interviewed by neurodivergent journalists. One of those people will be Ryan Tubridy.
“So Ryan graciously came in. He gave us hours of his time. I don’t think there’s such a thing as celebrity in Ireland, there is Enya, Bono and Saoirse Ronan. You know, But Ryan Tubridy he is up there,” she joked.
“He is extremely well known. In my day job, we have been trying to get that man on our couch for so long. But this is the show that he has decided to and it’s amazing. I don’t want to give too much away.”
Of course, Ryan has been entangled in controversial payment scandal, which saw him step down from both The Late Late Show and his RTÉ Radio 1 show. Muireann remained coy about what they did and didn’t talk about.
“They’re fully aware of everything. No one lives in a bubble. And he is a very high-profile figure. He’s been a high-profile figure for 30 years, so everyone knows him,” she told us.
“There’s no sensation of sitting there and having a moment of gotcha. There was no, ‘I have to find this out or my boss is going to kill me.’ It was just people wanted to know.”
Mairead Whelan, Head of Development at Kite Entertainment, who worked on creating the show, added: “I suppose there’s, there’s pros and cons, as in, people like doing the show because the questions are unfiltered. So you could be asked anything, but you’re being asked anything without an agenda.”
Catch The Assembly on Virgin Media this autumn
