Late Late Show sees drop of over 40k viewers during new season

There was a dip in the viewership between the programme's season two return episode and its follow-up.

According to the national broadcaster, the flagship talk show was watched by an average audience of ​441,000 on RTÉ One and RTÉ One+1 upon its return on Friday, 13 September.

The RTÉ statement read: "It was watched by ​44% of the available audience on RTÉ One. On RTÉ Player, Friday's show has generated over ​38,000 streams so far."

"The return of the Late Late Show proved very popular across all Social Media platforms generating 2.5m video views."

Amongst the guests on this episode were John Bishop and Rory McIlory.

After the episode dropped, RTÉ's Group Head of Entertainment, Comedy and Music, Alan Tyler said in a statement: "Last year, a new era and a new presenter resulted in the highest season launch in a decade.

"It is terrific to see Patrick cement that success with a second season launch where the audience share is above our season one average. We cannot wait to bring audiences some of the surprises we have planned right across this year."

That said, there was a noteworthy drop in viewership between the show's season two return episode and its follow-up episode on Friday, 20 September.

This latest episode was watched by an average audience of ​399,000 on RTÉ One and RTÉ One+1, meaning a drop in viewership of 42,000.

The guests on this entry of the programme included Saoirse Ronan, Snow Patrol and Rylan Clarke.

"It was watched by ​42% of the available audience on RTÉ One. On RTÉ Player, Friday's show has generated over ​38,000 streams so far," the national broadcaster said in a statement about the new episode.

"Across RTÉ social platforms, The Late Late Show has had over 4 million video views across all content and 220,000 engagements."

This news comes as two major changes have been made to the Late Late's upcoming and much-anticipated Toy Show episode.

The first was announced earlier this month, when it was confirmed that the Toy Show won’t be airing in November like usual, but instead on Friday, December 6.

Some audience members may be disappointed to hear that the show is dropping at a later date this winter, but having it closer to Christmas is a great move in our eyes.

The second change, however, was only announced earlier this week, with RTÉ confirming they’re looking for 32 children from each county in Ireland to participate in the first Late Late Toy Show County Parade.

They said: “We’re looking for children who are passionate about their county – it’s not about being the best singer or the best dancer – it’s about having county pride in buckets.

“So, get your applications in, tell us why you love your county and you could be cheering for Clare, marching for Mayo, or freestyling for Fermanagh.”

Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty said: “The inaugural Toy Show County Parade sounds to me like it could be the best craic of the night – 32 counties, 32 kids, live in studio on the biggest TV night of the year.

“I mean what could possibly go wrong?

Ahead of the Late Late's return this month, JOE had the opportunity to chat to Kielty.

We spoke with him about a variety of topics, including meeting Pope Francis, a funny recent encounter that the Irish presenter had with Stephen Colbert and his favourite Late Late guest to date.

Read more:

• Major change announced for this year's Late Late Toy Show
• The Toy Show will air later than usual this year
• Patrick Kielty recalls funny Stephen Colbert encounter while meeting the Pope
• Patrick Kielty names his favourite Late Late guest so far
• Oliver Callan on getting called to replace Ryan Tubridy: ‘Sounded like somebody had died’