Pat Kenny has insisted there’s no bad blood between himself and his former employers in RTE.
We were all tuned in to watch the broadcaster’s debut to UTV last night, which just so happened to clash with his former co-presenters live show.
Pat Kenny In The Round and Claire Byrne Live both aired at 9pm on Monday night and Pat said that despite the clash, there’s no hard feelings.
“If I was to come back with something like The Frontline and was up against Claire, who is a buddy of mine, it would have been odd,” Pat explained.
“But there two different kinds of programmes. People can watch either or both.”
The former Late Late presenter said that many of his past colleagues had wished him well, and he left RTE studios on good terms with all of them.
“I left with all the friendships intact by the way- the Director General gave me a hug, so there was no bad blood,” he told The Herald.
Amid rumours that RTE said Pat would never be welcome back, the 67-year-old presenter said he wasn’t hurt or fazed by this.
“I just thought, well what else are they going to say?”
The broadcaster left his position in RTE in 2013 in order to cut back on the amount of work he was doing, and recently admitted that a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
“When you’re number one, it’s a tyranny and a massive weight- I don’t feel that weight now. Hopefully it (In The Round) will grow an audience and evolve, as most things do.”
Despite his hopes that his UTV and Newstalk shows will flourish, the presenter didn’t seem too concerned about the ratings or about comparing himself to the others before him.
“A nice thing in Newstalk, where I’m trying to build and grow ratings, is that I’m not being pitched against others like Gaybo, or anybody else.”
The big debut last night saw Pat welcome Co Tyrone GAA Manager Mickey Harte, who emotionally spoke about the mysterious death of his daughter Michaela on her 2011 honeymoon in Mauritius.
It’s anticipated that Lulu and astronaut Chris Hadfield will also be featuring this season, which will break after four episodes for the summer and return for a longer reel next autumn.
