You wouldn’t feel it, but he’s been doing it for a long time now.
The Late Late Show is a staple of Irish television on a Friday night as the evenings get darker and the nights get cooler.
First there was Gay Byrne, who was succeeded by Pat Kenny, while the late Gerry Ryan presented a show as well, before Ryan Tubridy took over the role all the way back in 2009.
He wasn’t the favourite by any stretch when the job came up, with the likes of the aforementioned Ryan and Miriam O’Callaghan thought to be in the running as well, and far more likely candidates to land the role in many people’s minds.
But it was Tubridy who came out on top and, speaking on JOE’s new show Ireland Unfiltered with Dion Fanning, he spoke about the process of how he got the job.
“To me, The Late Late Show belonged to older people to present,” Tubridy said. “So it wasn’t a realistic ambition. I thought maybe two presenters later I might have a pop, and I’d be in for a chance. But I definitely didn’t so when Pat Kenny left, I did not see myself in the frame at all.
“I thought maybe they might go as an outside bet, yer man from Saturday has air miles, let’s give him a whirl, but I thought they’d never go for it.”
Listen to the full show here…
But while he wasn’t sure he could land the job, there was no doubting Tubridy’s interest in nabbing the position, especially the prospect of being the presenter of the biggest show on Irish television at just 36 years of age.
“I was called in for a chat and to shoot the breeze, and the breeze was shot,” Tubridy said.
“They said you’ve got the gig, and I said, ‘wow’.”
Ryan Tubridy’s new book ‘The First Christmas Jumper: And The Sheep Who Changed Everything’ is out now in all good bookshops.
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