RTE host Ryan Tubridy has said that this evening’s Late Late Show has a “post-war feel” to it ahead of Ireland’s Eurosong contest.
Just last week, the full live audience was welcomed back into the RTE studio in Donnybrook for the Late Late Show for the first time since the onset of the pandemic.
Tubridy has said that tonight’s show is going to be a “treat” as a number of hopefuls battle to be chosen to represent Ireland in the Eurovision this year in Italy.
From the contestants to the set, sound and beyond, Tubridy has teased that this show will not be one to be missed.
“I think there’s nervousness in the air. There’s excitement in the air,” he said on his radio show on RTE Radio One this morning.
Tubs also described the event as a “Mardi Gra” and said there was a “post-war feel” to it.
“It has that roaring twenties sense of fun and excitement,” he said.
Tonight’s show is the first show of its kind since before Covid-19, when Lesley Roy was selected to represent Ireland back in 2020.
Just last week, the full-sized Late Late audience was welcomed back in for the first time in two years.
Before the show, Tubridy said: “I’m very excited today. Tonight on the Late Late Show we have our biggest audience attendance for two years.
"We will have just shy of 200 souls looking at us in the crowd.
“I am nervous, I am excited and I am a little bit emotional about it.”
“Because the people that you see in front of you are, to me, a representative sample of people at home. And there are hundreds of thousands of people watching, we hope, and we know thankfully.
“And equally they are represented by the people, and everyone dresses up and makes an effort and looks great and in great form and it is an extraordinary vibe in that studio when there are people there."
In relation to the lifting of most restrictions, Tubridy said: “Unwinding has begun and aren’t we grateful. The emergency pandemic measures will soon be a distant memory and I want to mark the night by saying it has been a career privilege for me and the team on The Late Late Show to have had your company through the hard and sad times.”
The host recently spent Christmas in isolation after having been in contact with a positive case.
It’s almost been two years since Tubridy had Covid-19 back in March 2020.
At the time, he said: “Like so many other people in Ireland, I tested positive but I was in the very fortunate position to have a very unintrusive experience, which I now have come to the end of.
"While I've been at home watching television and listening to the radio, I have been bowled over by the extraordinary work of our front line heroes and their families who continue to make Ireland a healthier and safer place."
Tubs has also said that since then, he’s been fortunate enough to not suffer any effects from long Covid.
Today, he teased that tonight’s show is just one of the exciting projects coming up for the Late Late, with their Valentines special coming next week.
He also said there was “another surprise coming down the tracks” which he did not go into detail about.
