Patrick Kielty sticks the boot in during opening Late Late Show monologue

"They might have booked the wrong pony!"

Patrick Kielty made his debut as host of The Late Late Show on RTÉ, this evening [Friday, September 15] and made an early impression. The County Down native mixed comedy and humility as he went through his opening monologue before saying hosting the talk show was 'the honour of a life-time'.

Patrick Kielty sticks the boot in

The opening credits leaned on bygone days and there was even a line from original host, Gay Byrne, before Patrick Kielty was played on-stage to 'Back in Black' by AC/DC. The band, he would later jest, were called Grant Thornton and The Flip Flops. He started off with a Joe Duffy Liveline gag, about being precious about The Wolfe Tones before telling the audience, "Great to be here. So good to finally get started.” Kielty joked about the show being off-air but still all over the news after the payments scandal and Oireachtas hearings, over the past four months. He remarked:

"What a treat it is to have The Late Late Show on again AFTER the news again!" "We've got a new format," he added, "where the host gets to ask the questions, rather than answer them at the Oireachtas."

Kielty was not finished there as he remarked that there was 'no expense spared' at the fancy, new set. He referred to RTÉ losing out on a lot of TV licence money and how the audience numbers would surely drop, as a result.

"We're expecting an audience of up to 27 people here tonight… to put that in perspective, that’s twice the people that saw Toy Show: The Musical!"

There were some nice, personal touches, too as Patrick Kielty spoke of how much it meant to him and his family to be hosting The Late Late. After another rapturous round of applause, it was on with the show. https://twitter.com/RTELateLateShow/status/1702786764111335560

'Hopefully there will be something in there for everybody' - Patrick Kielty

In the days leading up to the return of The Late Late Show, JOE was invited to a press event in RTÉ's television studios to chat to Kielty about what viewers can expect from his version of the programme. On this topic, the new host said: "I think the tone is hopefully going to be a little bit loose.

"I think, as someone who has done live stand-up and enjoys doing live TV, I think the idea of trying to make it too polished - I think it is kind of about having fun, things are fun and things go wrong, and I think that is hopefully the tone of the show.

"For the pace of the show, I think there will be ebbs and flows, and hopefully there will be something in there for everybody." Read more:

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