Ryan Tubridy hosted his final Late Late Show on Friday night, after 14 years at the helm.
RTÉ has since confirmed the show had an average audience of 680K (including RTÉ One +1), with an audience share of 63.2% and a further 68,600 streams on the RTÉ Player.
The nearly two-hour-long episode paid homage to Ryan’s most memorable moments from the talk show.
During the episode, Ryan was commended by President Michael D. Higgins, who wished him the very best of luck in all of his future endeavours.
Elsewhere, the broadcaster spoke to Charlie Bird, with whom he has become good friends.
He was even treated to a performance and catch up with some former Toy Show stars – who have all since grown up.
Ryan was also surprised by sweet video messages from a host of well-known faces.
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The cast of Mrs Brown’s Boys, Saoirse Ronan and Jessie Buckley all wished the broadcaster the best of luck in his future endeavours.
However, it was one message in particular which peaked Ryan’s attention – one from his hero Sir Paul McCartney.
The Beatles legend congratulated Ryan on 14 years at the helm of the RTÉ show, and also wished him a happy 50th birthday.
Before Cian Ducrot closed the series finale, Ryan thanked the audience and viewers at home for supporting him throughout his 14-year stint on The Late Late Show.
The broadcaster stressed that family was the most important to him above all else.
He thanked his mum, brothers and sisters and most importantly his two daughters – Ella and Julia, for their support throughout his journey.
The 49-year-old emotionally told the audience: “My greatest gratitude – I hope you don’t mind me saying that, I’m dedicating the show tonight to my family.”
“My mother can’t be here tonight because she’s recovering, but I wanna send her all my love.”
“She was here one night in the audience sitting somewhere over there, and Michael Bublé was sitting standing over there – she loves Michael Bublé!”
“He was singing ‘I still haven’t met you yet…’ and he was doing his thing – there’s 200 people in the audience, and 199 people in the audience were looking at Michael Bublé, and I was looking at the audience going ‘they’re loving this’ and I looked at Bublé who was brilliant and singing away.”
“But then I looked back again and noticed all the faces were facing him, apart from one – it was my mother going ‘you’re doing great!’”
“That’s what it’s all about. It’s about family, when all is said and done.”
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“I wanna say how much I admire her and appreciate her and my brothers and sisters are the rock.”
“But especially, obviously my two girls. So, to Ella and to Julia, you know this, I’ve said it so many times, I love you so much they haven’t even created a word for it yet. That’s the truth.”
The broadcaster shares his two daughters, who are respectively 23 and 18, with his ex-wife Anne Marie Power.
Patrick Kielty will take over as host of The Late Late Show this September for its 61st season.
