TV3's director of programming has defended the station's decision to take The Dunphy Show, transmitted live from the Helix, off the air for six weeks over Christmas, branding a newspaper article criticising the move as "nonsense".
Mr Mathew Salway said the chat show was taking a break over the Christmas period for commercial reasons.
He said suggestions that the show was in difficulty were untrue.
"As a commercial TV station, everything we do is designed to make money. There is very little advertising in the period after Christmas, so there's no point mounting a show in the first three weeks in January."
Mr Salway denied suggestions sponsors were concerned about the show's presenter, Eamon Dunphy, admitting he used recreational drugs. He said the show's sponsorship was not in danger.
"We have conversations with our sponsors all the time and they've not told me that they've any intention of pulling out and I believe that they're fully behind us," he said.
The Dunphy Show live began its first run at the start of September. The series will wind up on December 12th and is not due to return until the end of January.
This break was written into the host's contract with the programme makers, Mr Salway said.
"We know exactly what we're doing," he added.
