Late Late Show will not be diminished by plan to make it off-site, says RTÉ boss

The Late Late Show will not be “diminished in any way” by being made outside RTÉ, director general Kevin Bakhurst has told the Insights with Sean O’Rourke podcast.
RTÉ unions have expressed concern at plans to move the flagship chatshow and soap opera Fair City away from its Montrose campus, and possibly commission independent production companies to make them.
Mr Bakhurst told the RTÉ podcast that the Late Late was “editorially very sensitive” and it would not give up oversight of the show.
“We may hand over parts of it, we may not. We have yet to talk to independents about how we’re going to do this or where we’re going to do it,” he said.
The Late Late Show has been broadcast live from RTÉ’s television building since it began in 1962. Staff say its location and status as an in-house production is part of its editorial DNA.
However, they heard at a “town hall” meeting this week that the building would require a €137 million refurbishment to meet environmental standards if RTÉ continues to use it from 2030 onwards.
Mr Bakhurst said RTÉ had “no choice” but to move the programme off-site.
“We have five years in terms of when we need to get out of the buildings here. I think people who don’t know the buildings and Donnybrook won’t be familiar with the state they’re in. I mean, that particular building is 60 years old, the roof is leaking,” he said.
“We’re doing running repairs. Some of the glazing fell out last year. We had to repair that. And each time you do that, it’s hugely expensive.”
[ RTÉ’s Late Late Show and Fair City to be produced off Montrose site under new strategyOpens in new window ]
The search for an external studio for the Late Late and site to build a new set for Fair City is expected to begin in earnest in the coming months.
The RTÉ director general, who was previously a senior news editor at the BBC, also spoke to Mr O’Rourke about the fallout from the conviction of former BBC news presenter Huw Edwards, who received a six-month suspended prison sentence in September after he admitted accessing indecent images of children as young as seven.
“For me and for everyone who knew Huw, I mean it is absolutely shocking what he did and disgusting what he did actually, sadly. And I really feel really sorry for all the victims of it,” said Mr Bakhurst.
The dilemma of how the BBC should handle archive footage of events anchored by the presenter, including the death of Queen Elizabeth, is “a tough one” for his former employer, he said.
“They can’t just airbrush that out of history, unfortunately. It’s very unfortunate for the BBC that that is so tainted now, but I don’t think they can just not show it.”