RTE's The Late Late Show is the second longest chat show in the world, first broadcast in 1962 with Gay Byrne fronting the programme.
The legendary Byrne, who died in 2019 aged 85, presented the show every Friday night between September and May until standing down from the hot seat in 1999.
Byrne made the show an institution and must see television for viewers across the island, including large parts of Northern Ireland. It is the second longest running chat programme after The Tonight Show in the US.
He laid down the template, mixed light entertainment and breezy chat with some genuinely heavy-hitting and exclusive interviews.
Bishops featured heavily in some of its most famous broadcasts. In 1966, Thomas Ryan, the Bishop of Clonfert, branded the show "immoral" following a light hearted segment featuring a nighty.
More seriously, an interview with Annie Murphy, the mother of a child fathered by Bishop Eamonn Casey, was broadcast that riveted the country.
Pat Kenny took over the slot in 1999 and remained as host until 2009. Without any warning, he announced live on air in March of that year his departure, with the final show in May, at the end of the season.
Speculation and different names were mentioned as a successor until Tubridy was announced as the host two months after Kenny's final show.
On Turbridy's first, he put together a top line up of Brian Cowen, Saoirse Ronan, Brian McFadden, Joan Collins, Cherie Blair. It was the most watched since Byrne's last broadcast.
Most watched, that is, apart from the annual toy show every December, consistently the most watched show on Irish television.
