TV & Radio

RTE announced their brand new Autumn schedule this afternoon and some of their all too familiar faces are set to be as ubiquitous as ever in the coming months.

Ryan Tubridy, Brendan O’Connor, Craig Doyle and Hector Ó hEochagáin will all front programmes on our national broadcaster over the next few months, the first three as hosts of their already established chat shows, while the flame-haired and often flaming annoying Meath man is set to take “to the highways and by-ways of Ireland”, although for what purpose we’re not actually sure.

Noel Gallagher will feature in a new series of The Meaning of Life with Gay Byrne, while The Voice and Celebrity Bainisteoir also return, with the latter promising a “new twist” that is bound to have people on the edge of their seats in living rooms across Ireland.

Critically acclaimed shows such as Love/Hate and Raw will also be making a return, while amongst the new material on offer is Instrumental, where three well known personalities take up the challenge of learning a musical instrument and Football's Next Star, which will offer one lucky Irish soccer player a coveted place at Glasgow Celtic's prestigious Youth Academy.

Aside from domestic material, also included in the autumn schedule are popular international television series such as Homeland, Revenge, Big Bang Theory, New Girl, 2 Broke Girls, CSI, CSI New York and The Mentalist.

Commenting on the new schedule, Managing Director of RTÉ Television Glen Killane said: "In this Digital age there is no such thing as an Irish television market. Almost 80 per cent of Irish households have access to hundreds of digital channels, most of them with no Irish programming.

“RTÉ and the other Irish broadcasters are competing against some of the largest and best-funded broadcasters in the world, yet last year 47 of the top 50 programmes shown in Ireland were broadcast on RTÉ. The range and quality of RTÉ's output is our past, our present and the key to our digital future."

The feast of sport on the box this summer has left us all with high expectations when we sit down on our couches in the evening, so can RTE's autumn schedule go anywhere close to filling the void that will be left when the Olympics are over?

The jury's out, we're afraid.