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Movies & TV

01st Feb 2022

The Late Late Show hit with formal complaint after Friday night’s episode

Katy Brennan

Late Late Show audience complaint

Opinions were divided following the show which featured a full audience in attendance.

Several people have complained to RTÉ about Friday night’s episode of The Late Late Show.

A full live audience joined Ryan Tubridy back in the studio for the first time since the pandemic began.

To celebrate, the opening scene saw the audience belt out ‘Ireland’s Call’ and wave green flags while Ryan enthusiastically joined in.

The host claimed that the intro showed how “a new era of positivity” is upon us.

Following the scenes, many took to Twitter to label the show “cringe” – one person called it an “absolute cringefest”, while another said it was like “Up For the Match but for posh people”.

However, for some unhappy viewers, expressing their opinions on social media wasn’t enough.

RTÉ has revealed that it received one official complaint about the show and a further 11 phone calls to offer “negative feedback”.

An official statement from RTÉ read:

“The Late Late Show was the most-watched programme of the weekend on Irish television where an average of 512,000 watched across RTÉ One and RTÉ One+1, as the longest-running live chat show in the world welcomed its largest live audience in almost two years.

“RTÉ received one official complaint, 11 members of the public contacted RTÉ, via email and phone message, to give negative feedback on Friday night’s show.”

Before Friday’s show, Ryan had said he was both nervous and delighted at the thought of having an audience back in studio again.

“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.”

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