Contrasting chat show fortunes for the ad kings

Date Published: {J}

You’d wonder why Brendan O’Connor and Craig Doyle need TV shows at all, given that they’re flogging something or other on every ad break all night long already.

There appears to be no depths they won’t stoop to in an effort to add another few bob to their bulging wallets – and just why nobody in RTE shouted stop (or at least threatened them with the loss of their respective programmes) beggars belief.

In Doyle’s case, he’d probably be well advised to hold onto the advertising gigs because he is truly atrocious on The Panel; out of his depth, lacking humour (kind of a key ingredient for a show like this) and wearing a shade of hair last seen hanging from a plum tree.

But in O’Connor’s case, it is remarkable how he has matured into a top class chat show host to a point where he offers a real alternative to the more run-of-the-mill type of show that we’ve endured for decades.

He’s irreverent but no longer mixes that up with insulting; he’s quick-witted, extremely funny and brings his guests into areas they never intended. Sometimes he veers so far left of field that you begin to think of Jonathan Ross – and that’s the highest compliment of all.

The irony is of course that both of them would have lost out to the late Gerry Ryan for the Saturday night slot. So O’Connor got the gig there and Doyle was given a sort of consolation prize of The Panel.

And like Doyle himself, this is a show that has lost its way. Ever since Dara O’Briain left the hot seat and took his talents to Mock The Week, The Panel has been in a downward spiral and no amount of guest hosts could disguise the fact.

The regular panellists themselves have it down to a fine art but it’s become predictable and it badly needed a new host to take it out of its comfort zone into new light.

Instead, Doyle seems in awe of their ability to crack the scripted jokes – he should be because he cannot pull that off himself – and he has all the presence of a stand-in HDip teacher faced with a gang of unruly Transition Year students.

It’s not like he hasn’t been around the block because he’s been with the BBC and more latterly ITV but then that was always a different, more restrained format – this should be anarchic, if only he know what to do with it.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.