RTÉ HAS MOVED to reassure people that the Late Late Show and Saturday Night Show are not in competition, after it emerged that Brendan O’Connor beat Ryan Tubridy in the ratings last weekend.

An average audience of 499,600 viewers tuned in to watch the Late Late Show on Friday, 6 February, while an average audience of 501,900 tuned in to watch the Saturday Night Show the following night.

Amid the reports about the viewership figures, RTÉ pointed out that The Late Late Show is still the most watched chat show in Ireland, and the Saturday Night Show “is doing really well and is the most watched show on Saturday nights in Ireland”.

In a statement to TheJournal.ie, the broadcaster said:

The Late Late Show and The Saturday Night Show air on different nights and are not in competition with one another. Both continue to perform really well.

It described the real winner this weekend as RTÉ, “which enjoyed extraordinary ratings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday”.

Read: Ray D’Arcy was losing listeners before he jumped ship… but his new slot doesn’t look too good either>

Read: “They tell Ryan stuff they won’t tell anybody else”: Behind the scenes at the Tubridy show>