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Ray D’Arcy has admitted that he did not want to host his chat show on Saturday night this year due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The Kildare broadcaster has been in command of Saturday nights on RTE since 2015, but the entertainment chat show did not return this fall because Ray did not want to do so during the shutdown.
The radio and television star explained that he did not want to headline a show that consisted of Zoom interviews and no audience, something that chat shows around the world have had to do to stay on the air.
“There were several conversations about how we would do this,” Ray told The Irish Times.
“And with every step I took, ‘That is not going to work … that is not going to work. I have no interest in doing that. That is not going to work.’
“I didn’t want to be in an empty studio with someone at Zoom. No thanks. Hats off to Ryan Tubridy because it’s a very difficult thing to do.”
Ray said the decision was entirely based on the situation in Ireland with Covid-19, but admitted that he doesn’t know if he wants to host the show if he returns.
“They wanted something for 9:30 on a Saturday night, and sitting down with me, nothing came up that we could both agree on. Whichever way you say, I was involved in making that decision,” he said.
“Actually, I do not know [if he would do it again]… We are a small country and the world has changed and people communicate in different ways. And people don’t feel the need to get on a plane and come to Ireland to advertise their book if they have six million followers on Instagram or Twitter. “
However, Ray says he is proud of the work he did on Saturday nights, especially when he was competing with The Late Late Show for guests and content.
“It quickly became very obvious to me that you are fishing in a very small pool,” he continued to post.
“And in our first year or two, the group got smaller [because] The Late Late Show started to be more and more for Irish guests … and then you are competing against this huge beast, who is older than me. And it is impossible to compete against that.
“So the team did really well. We had some really important interviews over the years, and I really enjoyed it.”
However, this is by no means the end of Ray’s television career. He will return to our screens every Sunday before Christmas presenting a revamped version of The Den, alongside Zig and Zag and Dustin the Turkey.
“Someone asked us the other day if there would be a script and we all laughed. It will be as crude, clever and low-tech as it once was,” Ray told RTE Guide this week.
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