Patrick Kielty will take over as host of The Late Late Show this September.
The comedian will become the fourth presenter to host the show, following in the footsteps of Gay Byrne, Pat Kenny and most recently Ryan Tubridy.
The 52-year-old also hosts a show on BBC Radio 5 Live every Saturday morning from 9am until 11am – which is less than 12 hours after an episode of The Late Late Show concludes.
According to The Irish Independent, Patrick will trade BBC’s London studio in favour of their Belfast studio on Saturday mornings to accommodate his new gig as host of The Late Late Show.
“I can confirm that Patrick will be continuing with his 5 Live show whilst he takes on presenting The Late Late Show,” a spokesperson for BBC radio said.
Meanwhile an RTÉ source said every accommodation would be made for Patrick to divide his time between the two national broadcasters.
“There is no suggestion that he will take a step back from any of his other gigs once he takes over The Late Late Show gig,” she said.
“By using BBC’s Northern Ireland studios for his show, there won’t be any messing around on planes, flying in and out of Heathrow to make sure he’s back in time for his weekend show.”
“Every arrangement will be put in place to make sure the transition is as seamless as possible. There’s only 100 miles between Dublin and Belfast and at that time of night, traffic won’t be an issue so the journey would be relatively quick.”
BBC also have a small studio space on the grounds of RTÉ, so if worse came to worse, Patrick could use this for his radio show.
“All these things would have been ironed out when he was first approached to take over The Late Late Show presenting gig and it’s expected that he will continue fronting the two flagship shows without any issue,” the source added.
Goss.ie caught up with Patrick and his wife Cat Deeley at the 2023 IFTA Film & Drama Awards earlier this month, where he addressed longstanding speculation he was set to take over The Late Late Show.
He told us: “The only thing I’ll say about The Late Late Show is a couple of things. 1, it is one of the greatest TV shows on the planet and whoever gets that gig is going to be really, really lucky.”
“All of the stuff that I’ve read, and all of the stuff people are saying, the one thing people have to remember is how big shoes they are to fill. I’ve done a chat show before, I’ve done a live show before, [myself and my wife Cat] have both done live TV. It’s hard.”
“Whenever you’ve been on The Late Late Show as a guest and you’ve sat close to Ryan and seen how he does his stuff…”
Cat added: “He does it beautifully and effortlessly. He’s a swan, he glides on the top of the surface and is paddling underneath. They are very big shoes to fill.”
Patrick and Cat currently reside in London with their two sons – Milo, 7, and James, 4.
When asked if Cat would be willing to move to Ireland with her husband and their children if he got the gig, she replied: “Let’s see if you even get it first of all shall we? We’ll talk about it then!”
Check out the exclusive below:
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