''Tonight with Craig Doyle'' is a

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

hosted by

Craig Doyle Craig Doyle (born 17 December 1970, Dublin) is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV and more recently BT Sport. Irish viewers also know him as the host of RTÉ One chat ...

that was broadcast on

RTÉ One RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís � ...

for one series in 2010. The show featured guest interviews, audience participation and live music. ''Tonight with Craig Doyle'' was broadcast every Saturday night during the spring season directly after the main evening news.

History

Replacing ''Tubridy Tonight''

Following

Pat Kenny Patrick Kenny (born 29 January 1948) is an Irish broadcaster, who currently hosts the daily radio show ''The Pat Kenny Show'' on Newstalk and the current affairs show ''Pat Kenny Tonight'' on Virgin Media One. Prior to this, Kenny had a 41-yea ...

's stepping down as host of ''The Late Late Show'' in 2009, RTÉ announced that

Ryan Tubridy Ryan Tubridy (born 28 May 1973), nicknamed 'Tubs ' is an Irish broadcaster. He presents ''The Ryan Tubridy Show'' and '' The Late Late Show''. Tubridy previously presented RTÉ 2fm breakfast radio show ''The Full Irish'', which at its end was ...

, host of his own Saturday night chat show, would be Kenny's replacement. ''

Tubridy Tonight ''Tubridy Tonight'' is a talk show hosted by Ryan Tubridy that aired on RTÉ One for five seasons between 2004 and 2009. The programme featured guest interviews (usually three per show), audience participation and live music from both a guest mu ...

'' had aired since 2004 and had regularly drawn an audience of up to half a million since the first series. The departure of Tubridy to the Friday night slot left a gap in the schedule. In late 2009 RTÉ announced that it was to commission a new Saturday night entertainment show that would be fronted by "an established name or a combination of established names".

Miriam O'Callaghan Miriam O'Callaghan (born 6 January 1960) is an Irish television current affairs presenter with RTÉ. O'Callaghan has presented '' Prime Time'' since 1996, and her own summer talk show, ''Saturday Night with Miriam'', from 2005 onwards. In th ...

and

Gerry Ryan Gerard Ryan (4 June 1956 – 30 April 2010) was an Irish presenter of radio and television employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ). He presented '' The Gerry Ryan Show'' on radio station RTÉ 2fm each weekday morning from 1988 until ...

, two broadcasters who lost out in the battle to succeed Kenny as host of ''The Late Late Show'', were two names that were mentioned as possible hosts. It was hoped that the show would be "high energy", and would "provide a distinctively Irish take on contemporary entertainment" and proposals for the show's format could include "chat, music, comedy, satire or some other element, such as audience participation, games, etc". It was reported by the ''

Evening Herald ''The Herald'' is a nationwide mid-market tabloid newspaper headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and published by Independent News & Media who are a subsidiary of Mediahuis. It is published Monday–Saturday. The newspaper was known as the ''Ev ...

'' that the programme would have a budget of 90,000 per programme while the set for the show cost 100,000, despite being only for an eight-week show and tough company budget cuts. In a new departure, RTÉ decided to pit two new chat shows against each other. Brendan O'Connor, who moved to RTÉ from '' The Apprentice: You're Fired!'' on TV3, would present ''

The Saturday Night Show ''The Saturday Night Show'' is a talk show hosted by Brendan O'Connor broadcast on RTÉ One between 2010 and 2015. The show features guest interviews, audience participation and live music. ''The Saturday Night Show'' is broadcast every Saturday ...

'' for an initial run of eight weeks before handing over to Doyle who would present ''Tonight with Craig Doyle'' for a further eight weeks. Whichever chat show proved successful would be recommissioned for a further series. Doyle was known to have secured the role even before ''

'' had aired and wanted the Saturday programme to "complement" the more serious Friday night chat show by being entertaining.

Debut

''Tonight with Craig Doyle'' made its debut on 10 April 2010 for an initial run of eight programmes. The guests for the first programme were

La Toya Jackson La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956) is an American singer and television personality. The fifth child and middle daughter of the Jackson family, Jackson first gained recognition on the family's variety television series, ''The Jacksons'', ...

Louis Walsh Michael Louis Vincent Walsh (born 5 August 1952) is an Irish music manager and television personality. He has managed Johnny Logan, Boyzone, Jedward and Westlife, four of Ireland's most successful pop acts in the 1990s and 2000s. He later bec ...

and actress

Victoria Smurfit Victoria Smurfit (born 31 March 1974) is an Irish actress. She is known for playing Orla O'Connell in the BBC television series ''Ballykissangel'', Detective Chief Inspector Roisin Connor in the ITV police procedural ''Trial & Retribution'' and ...

Kate Nash Kate Marie Nash (born 6 July 1987) is an English singer-songwriter and actress. Nash launched her music career in 2005. Her 2007 single " Foundations" became a hit and brought her to public attention in the UK. Her debut album, '' Made of Bricks ...

was the musical guest, and

Jarlath Regan Jarlath Regan (born 1980) is a London-based Irish comedian and podcaster. A former graphic design consultant, he began his stand-up comedy career in 2003 and by the end of 2004 was a finalist for three major UK comedy newcomer awards: So You Thi ...

provided

stand-up comedy Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

Ending

Following the completion of both ''The Saturday Night Show'' and ''Tonight with Craig Doyle,'' it was decided to recommission the former for a second series. It proved more popular with the audience than Doyle's show which was panned by the critics and regarded as a flop. Sinead Ryan of the ''

'' said that Doyle "is the latest contestant in RTÉ's version of ''The Apprentice''", referring to the different presenters changing around in that slot. Doyle went on to present '' The Social'', a midweek nighttime show on RTÉ Two.

Production

''Tonight with Craig Doyle'' was broadcast from Studio 4 in the

RTÉ Television Centre The RTÉ Television Centre is a television studio building which is owned by Ireland's national public service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann. It is part of the RTÉ campus located at Donnybrook in South Dublin. The building houses th ...

at Donnybrook,

Dublin 4 Dublin 4, also rendered as D4 and D04, is a historic postal district of Dublin, Ireland including Baggot Street Upper, the southernmost fringes of the Dublin Docklands, and the suburbs of Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Irishtown, Merrion, Ringsend ...

. That studio is also home to the shows Friday night rival ''The Late Late Show''. As RTÉ's biggest the studio holds 200 audience members. The programme was pre-recorded on the Wednesday before the broadcast. This was primarily because Doyle had other presenting work to do on

ITV Sport ITV Sport is a sport producer for ITV. It was formed following the merger between Granada Sport and Central Sport.2010 Irish television series debuts 2010 Irish television series endings Irish television talk shows RTÉ original programming