Pat Kenny has weighed in on who become the new presenter of the Late Late Show - and he thinks their gender shouldn't matter.
The former host of the hit RTE show said that a woman taking over the role seems "inevitable" but that it shouldn't be purely because of her gender. Pat had hosted the Late Late and its annual Toy Show for 10 years before moving to Newstalk.
When the new presenter takes over he said it shouldn't be "just because she is a woman". Ryan Tubridy announced his departure last week and will wrap up on May 26.
Read more: Ryan Tubridy taking short break from RTE radio show
He told Dublin Live: “It’s almost inevitable it’ll be a woman. I would hate that someone gets it and she’s female, but people say she only got it because she is a woman. That would be terrible. Someone should get it on the basis of merit.”
Claire Byrne has been hotly tipped as the favourite to host the show, after Miriam O’Callaghan ruled herself out of the running last week. Pat recalled the moment he told his team and the audience he would be stepping down from the show in 2009.
He said: “I do remember. I did it on The Late Late Show. I told my team that night. Just before we did the promo at a minute to 9pm and then I told the public halfway through the show. It’s the right way to do it… if you do it too far in advance, the speculation starts far too early. Maybe he [Ryan] has other things on his mind that he wants to do which in order to do he needs to be officially gone.”
Pat said that when he stepped down: “I knew what I was going to be doing. I knew the Frontline was going to be my vehicle. At that stage, I had a good idea in my head what I wanted to do. It had been Questions and Answers and I thought that format was dated so I knew what I wanted to do. No maybe Ryan, and I’m not privy to it, but maybe he knows what he wants to do. But I knew where I was going. When I look back on my career, every 10 years I did something different.”
Pat added: “Throughout a career you can do lots of different things and I hope Ryan finds something he really, really enjoys because The Late Late Show is all consuming. It’s a big beast. It’s not just about presenting items. Often there’s choreography on demos and the set has to be adjusted and how you are going to present stuff – it’s not simple straightforward interviews.”
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