Love him or loathe him, nobody could dispute that Ryan Tubridy has provided the Late Late with his share of headline-grabbing moments. Here are the top 10 during his tenure on the series.
1: Toy Show F-Bomb
Did he say it? That was the question swirling around social media after Tubs appeared to drop a swear word when his attempt to open a bottle of fizzy pop when amiss at the 2020 Toy Show. “It was a dark moment in my career, but one of the funniest,” he would say. “And it was one of the best things to happen because suddenly people at home went ‘oh he’s like a real parent’.”
2: Ronan O’Gara’s Bizarre Interview, 2015
The rugby star shared a little too much information about his marriage with a stunned Tubridy, whose jaw unspooled in shock. The former player was asked about his greatest achievement. The presenter asked if he was most proud of his 2,625 points for Munster or having five children under the age of six.
O’Gara said: “I wouldn’t be nervous getting up on Jessica but I would be nervous kicking a ball”. He subsequently apologised to his wife, Jessica.
3: Russell Crowe versus the Toy Show Audience, 2015
“If you’re going to clap, clap in time,” said the Gladiator star as he squared up to the Plain People of Ireland, as embodied by the Late Late audience. To be fair, he was inflicting his dreadful music on them – no wonder they were out of time.
4: Linda Martin v Billy McGuinness, 2014
Tubridy’s Late Late never reached the “must-see” highs and lows of Gay Byrne’s tenure – but one notorious broadcast featured Eurovision winner Linda Martin squaring up to Aslan’s Billy McGuinness, who had criticised her friend, Louis Walsh, for his involvement in Eurovision. “You are an odious little man,” she told McGuinness in an exchange that has lived as the source of a million memes.
5: Ed Sheeran crashes down to earth on the Toy Show, 2021
Ed Sheeran may think he’s a pretty big cheese as the world’s most-streamed artist. He was cut down to size, though, when he made his second Toy Show appearance, in 2021, when one of the kids remarked that he was always on the radio. It was not a compliment.
6: Saoirse Ronan defends Saturday Night Live, 2017
“I’m not anti-Aer Lingus,” said a visibly uncomfortable Saoirse Ronan after Tubridy grilled her about her toe-curling appearance on an “Oirish” themed episode of Saturday Night Live.
7: Surprise Reunion the Toy Show, 2017
Adam and Kayla Burke believed their father, Graham, was still serving overseas with the Defence Forces. Imagine their surprise when he arrived at the Toy Show studio – home just in time for Christmas.
8: Hozier sings the Parting Glass, 2020
This was a non-Tubs Late Late, with Miriam O’Callaghan stepping in after Tubridy tested positive for Covid right at the beginning of the pandemic. It also coincided with the start of the lockdown and the earliest confirmed deaths. There was a lump-in-throat moment as singer-songwriter Hozier dedicated the Parting Glass to all who had died – a haunting performance that would feel as much premonition as tribute.
9: Francis Brennan’s Duvet Difficulties, 2016
It seemed so straightforward: Francis Brennan, the hotelier and presenter, would put a cover on a duvet using a tried-and-tested technique. Alas, the duvet refused to co-operate. He even dragged on an audience member to help. “This is what happens when you heckle on the Late Late,” Tubridy told her. Only the duvet seemed to get any fun from the impasse.
10: The Late Late: Beast from the East edition, 2018
In a foreshadowing of the pandemic, the Late Late aired during the ice-age-like conditions of the Beast From the East. “Pick a seat – any seat. You have a choice of 200,” Tubridy told his guests.
