Gay Byrne’s daughter Crona has admitted “change is good,” amid the news that The Late Late Show will move locations.
Speaking before his first show of the season, Patrick Kielty revealed that the studios that hosted everyone from Gay Byrne to Ryan Tubridy as the presenters, is set to be no more.
RTÉ Television Centre’s Studio 1 at Montrose in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, was the home of The Late Late Show for most of its life before the set switched to the more spacious Studio 4 in 1995.
Speaking to Goss.ie, Patrick revealed that “along with Fair City, we are going to be moving at some stage.”
He revealed that while he is aware the show is moving to a new space, he is yet to be told where the new studios will be.
“We don’t know when we’re moving, and we don’t know where we are going,” he admitted during interviews ahead of the new season of the infamous show.
However, according to Crona, whose father Gay hosted the show for 37 years until 1999, the Late Late won’t lose any of its notoriety if it moves outside the RTE campus.
She told The Irish Sun: “It will be sad to see it leave, but I agree with change and there has to be change.”
“But once you have someone good at the helm, it can be done.”
Speaking about Patrick Kielty, she admitted: “We’d known Pat Kenny and Ryan Tubridy, but it was quite an emotional time for us when Patrick took over last year.
“Patrick met our family before his first show. He told us he wouldn’t like to do anything Gay wouldn’t have liked.”
“We told him, ‘don’t worry, you won’t’. That we said that seemed to mean a great deal to Patrick.”
In June 2024, it was revealed that Fair City would be moving from the Montrose location.
RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst told a staff meeting that production of programmes, including Fair City, is to move off-site over the next five years.
He confirmed the decision as he outlined details of the broadcaster’s new strategy document, A New Direction, which will guide RTÉ for the next five years.
