RTÉ will be pumping over €1m into Brendan O’Connor’s new show, following Ray D’Arcy taking over his Saturday night chat show.
The tv star will be fronting a new panel show on RTÉ1, and the broadcaster is injecting €1.12m into the programme to ensure it’s a success.
The show promises to “take a provocative and entertaining look at the week’s events”, and will apparently move away from the “presenter-behind-a-desk format”, instead using backstage areas to “create a relaxed, off-the-cuff, cafe/pub vibe”.
Along with a panel of eight regular contributors, Brendan will be joined by two or three guests each week, as well as one featured studio guest each week, a competition, and a number of “studio-based items”.
Excluding the host’s fee, there’s a budget of €70,000 per hour-long episode, and RTÉ are presently seeking a production company to get the wheels rolling.
The show is set to run for 16 weeks from May at 9.30pm on Wednesday nights, following criticism the national broadcaster received for not shaking up its summer schedule enough last year.
