Outgoing Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy has said that he fully supports the decision to offer the host role to comedian Patrick Kielty and believes he has “the chops” to do the job.
Tubridy announced in March he would quit the show after 14 years after considering this idea last summer. His final show will be this Friday.
He will continue with his RTÉ Radio 1 radio show and said this morning that he wanted to say a few words about Kielty, the new host.
Kielty who was born in Dundrum, Co Down was officially announced as the new host at the weekend. The 52-year-old lives in London with his wife Cat Deely and two sons. He will take over the Friday night television role from September.
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“I’m really, really happy about this choice. I have to say, I said it before. I think I probably said it off air that I was very, very supportive of the suggestion that he might take over the show,” Tubridy said.
“I just think he has – what they say in the business – the chops. He can cover the heavy side of things and he’s got a background that will inform that.
“And he will also obviously do the lighter end of things with great skill because he’s a comedian and funny guy. He’s also, independent of that, a lovely fella.”
Kielty began his stand-up career as host of Northern Ireland’s first comedy club The Empire Laughs Back in Belfast. Since then, he has built a wide-ranging television and radio CV, including the BBC Northern Ireland chatshow Patrick Kielty Almost Live, which ran from 1999 to 2003.
His live stand-up tours have sold out across Ireland and Britain, while he has appeared as a guest on the Late Late on multiple occasions. Tubridy said that he just wanted to wish Kielty well.
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“I really want to wish him the very, very best. And look, I think he’ll be great for the Toy Show as well, because he’ll be well able for it as the dad of young kids, he has a great, smart sense of humour, he’ll be all over it,” Tubridy said.
“So I just think the show is going to be in really safe hands, he’s got himself backed up with a great team which no doubt he will be, and he’ll be fine, it’ll be great.
“And I’m just happy that, I mean, it’s not really my thing to be talking about any more necessarily in any big way, because I know that I’m nearly the ex guy, but I just want to put some wind in his sails as he heads forward on this extraordinary odyssey.
“Good guy, great future ahead for The Late Late Show. Great decision. I wish him great happiness and great success.”
