In case you missed it, this morning’s interview between Brendan O’Connor and Ryan Tubridy was one awkward affair.
Tubridy was yesterday named as the new host of the 9am-10am time slot on RTÉ Radio One and his chat with the show’s current stand-in O’Connor – who temporarily replaced John Murray earlier this month – had several cringeworthy moments.
25 seconds: Brendan thanks Ryan for breaking his holidays for this important summit, to which Ryan replies that he wasn’t ‘fishing for that.’
4m 14s:Â After Ryan spends a few minutes talking about his upcoming trip to Ethiopia, Brendan pretends to wind up the interview. He then says he’s been asked to stretch it out a bit. “Anything else?” Brendan says through gritted teeth.
5m 40s: “You were getting too old for 2fm, were you?” Brendan plays the age card.
6m 20s: Brendan tells Ryan, somewhat sarcastically, “I know I’ve come to see you as a protegé, and you see me as a mentor.” Ryan, warily, asks: “Where is this going?”
6m 32s:Â Things are getting really cringey now, as Brendan says he’s passing the torch (which he’s had for about four weeks) back to Ryan, and the Late Late Show host says he “can’t understand how you don’t have tissues for the nosebleeds for all that loftiness…” before Brendan interrupts him.
7m 28s: DING DING! When Ryan asks if he can pay tribute to the team behind his 2fm show, Brendan counters that “sounds a bit wanky” to the people at home. “Consider it done – if we start going into how great everyone is… I’ll be doing a bit of it at the end here anyway.” When Brendan asks if the team will be going with him, a clearly annoyed Ryan just says, “no.”
8m 03s: Brendan seems to be trying to talk Ryan out of his new job, telling him it’s too much to take on between the radio show and the Late Late. “If you were offered it, you’d do it,” Ryan tells Brendan. Ouch. “Gay Byrne and Pat Kenny both did it. It’s a long day on a Friday, but it’s a privilege. People do long days.”
Listen to the whole, awkward exchange here…
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