Thousands tuned out of Tommy Tiernan’s chat show on Saturday night – but more than 30,000 extra tuned into the Late Late Show.
RTE released figures for their two flagship chat shows showing the latest losses and gains by the two presenters.
The figures show an average 365,000 watched comedian Tiernan – an audience loss of 20,000 compared to his previous week of 385,000, while 32,000 more people tuned in to watch Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Show on Friday night compared to an average 376,000 the previous week.
A spokesperson for RTÉ said: "Friday night’s Late Late Show was watched by an average of 408,000 on RTÉ One and RTÉ One+1. It was watched by 40% of the available audience. On RTÉ Player, Friday's episode has generated 26,800 streams so far. The current series from September onwards has almost 834,000 streams.
“The Tommy Tiernan Show on Saturday, 11th March had an average audience of 365,000 (Live Plus VOSDAL) on RTÉ One (inc RTÉ One +1) and a 34% share. To date the series has had 555,000 streams on RTÉ Player.”
Ryan previously told how ratings don't bother him when he is pitted against comedian Tommy Tiernan’s Saturday night chat show.
Asked last year if he would ever adapt the popular “spontaneous” element of The Tommy Tiernan Show, which sees the comic interview guests without any knowledge of who they are beforehand, Ryan said: “Well I’ll tell you what, nothing is more spontaneous than a live show, which Tommy’s of course isn’t.
“And that’s the difference between us. Tommys is tremendous. But ours is a different class of spontaneity. It’s very, very alive. I’d like to be a bit more myself maybe. I mean, the guy you meet around a table like this, it’s kind of different to the guy you see on TV on Fridays.
“But he does have the advantage of editing it down in a way I don’t. So it is not comparing like with like. What he does is brilliant in that style and we do our best hell for leather in fully live. So they are two different shows.”
The RTE Radio 1 host added: “Tommy’s success is RTE’s success, is my success, it is a family success.”
Ryan said he’d even love to be a guest on the Saturday night series if he got the invite. He continued: “Of course I would if I was invited, but no I haven’t been invited. Because could you imagine what people would say if I went on Tommy’s show? RTE eating each other up, but it would be great.
“But I did do his radio show when he did his version of it but not the TV thing. I went to see him at the Comedy Festival. It was gas. We had a beer afterwards. It was good fun. It’s all peace and love, I’m afraid.”
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