The competition between Ray D’Arcy and Ryan Tubridy and the battle of the chat shows has been stepped up a notch. At today’s new season launch for RTE One, Ray confidently revealed that he plans to have all the stars feature on his new Saturday night programme.
The radio host and former The Den star will be taking over the Saturday Night Show from Brendan O’Connor, which will kick off the last Saturday in September.
And Ray said today that he believes he’ll have superior quality guests than Friday’s The Late Late Show – that is if Ryan Tubridy doesn’t get there first.
“We’ll have the big names if Ryan doesn’t get them first,” he said. “I think my competitive edge will come out sometime in February, it will be all nice up until then and then it will get competitive.”
But, despite them going head-to-head, Ray also insisted that there is no bad blood between him and Ryan. “We get on really well,” he commented.
When it comes to what the 50-year-old will be bringing to the table by replacing Brendan, he says he has full faith in his interviewing abilities.
“It is what we all know to be a chat show, I’ll be there hopefully in a nice comfortable environment, they’ll sit down, I’ll ask them questions, they’ll tell stories and that’s where the magic happens,” he said.
“Hopefully those stories will make people laugh, make them cry, make them shout at the television on a Saturday night.”
Today’s new season launch saw a preview of what’s to come on our screens later this year. Among the highlights are: Mario Rosenstock will also have his own studio show, The Voice of Ireland and Ireland’s Fittest Family will both be returning, Charlie Murphy and Ruth Bradley will both star in Rebellion, an Easter 1916 drama to air over three Sunday nights and Monday nights will host a new series of documentaries, including Recruits, which goes behind the scenes with the Irish Defence Forces and Call Back will see Joe Duffy finally take his Liveline formula to the small screen.
