RTÉ have defended the lack of female guests appearing on The Late Late Show.
According to the Irish Independent, this season has seen a total of 51 men appear on the famed chat show, which is hosted by Ryan Tubridy, in comparison to just 17 female guests.
Last Friday’s show was subject to criticism as the show only featured one female guest.
Six male faces, including Robbie Williams, Roger Moore, Keith Barry and Hector Ó hEochagáin, were sat on the sofa throughout the show – while RTÉ presenter Maura Derrane was the only female guest to speak to Ryan in a panel discussion about TG4.
Criticism: Maura was the only female guest to appear on the show last week | VIPIRELAND.COM
However, an RTÉ spokesperson has since said that producers don’t consider gender when booking guests, and they look for a number of factors including “profile, topicality and availability”.
“There have been eight ‘Late Late Shows’ and we have had 17 female guests. We have also had seven audience participants, six of whom were female,” the spokesperson said.
“These guests have included Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope writer Stefanie Preissner, Paralympians Ellen Keane and Niamh McCarthy, actress Jane Seymour and writer Jilly Cooper.”
Meanwhile, Late Late Show producer John McMahon said, “As RTÉ’s biggest chat show, our goal is to maximise audience on a weekly basis.
“It is very difficult to refuse guests of the calibre that were available [last week].…we are fully committed to giving guests of both genders access to ‘The Late Late Show’ whenever possible.”
