Maura Derrane has admitting replacing Ryan Tubridy on RTÉ Radio 1 was “daunting”.
The Today star made her radio debut on The Nine O’Clock Show, formerly The Ryan Tubridy Show, on Monday morning.
The 53-year-old will host the show for two weeks while Ryan’s temporary replacement Oliver Callan works on a new season of his show Callan’s Kicks.
Speaking on the show this morning, Maura said: “Good morning, Maura Derrane here. This is my first time in a radio studio so it is a little bit daunting, I have to admit.”
“I was driving down to Galway on Friday with my nine-year-old son Cal and I was quite nervous. I was telling him that it was a big deal that I was doing radio. He said I do TV all the time, but this is different. It is a challenge.”
“He said ‘Oh no, I hope you are not going to turn into puke girl from the Ninja Turtles movie’. Then I remembered the character from the new film, we went to see it with him about a month ago.”
“This budding journalist, a high school kid, and she had to stand up in front of her school because she wanted to be on air on their TV channel and she threw up.”
The Galway native continued: “Fast forward to the end of the movie and she has to tell the world that the ninja turtles are good guys and not the bad guys.”
“She gets in front of the TV screen again and she gets sick, but this time she continues on and manages to get through it.”
“Cal said to me that it was a long-winded story to just say for me to believe in myself. So that is what I have done today. Anyone out there facing a new challenge, you can do it.”
The news comes after Maura said she was “sad” to see Ryan leave RTÉ during an interview last week.
She said: “I’ve been on the Late Late Show a couple of times and Ryan is a nice guy. He’s a very experienced broadcaster… everyone was looking at it. I was looking at it like you were looking at it like a regular person’s perspective not having known anything.”
“It was a shock to me as it was to anyone else. I didn’t know anything about it. It’s sad. I think it is sad.
“Everything is sad that a broadcaster like Ryan is gone out of the mix but whatever he does he will do really well at it. I think it is sad the way it all ended up.”
