FORMER RTÉ PRESENTER Ryan Tubridy made his first return to the airwaves this morning, and joked about a possible move to the UK, in an interview with Chris Evans.
Chris Evans introduced Tubridy as an “absolute legend of Irish broadcasting,” on his Virgin Radio UK breakfast show, and asked him, tongue in cheek, “Welcome aboard, when are you starting?”
Tubridy laughed the suggestion off, saying: “Who knows?”
“He’s window shopping, he’s looking at Talk Radio, Talk Sport, Talk TV,” Evans went on to say.
Tubridy jokingly suggested a number of reasons for his trip to London, including “looking at property prices, buying a bike, attending my first CarFest, yeah, who knows,” to which Evans replied: “Relocation, relocation, relocation”.
Asked to tell UK listeners tuned into the popular radio programme who Ryan Tubridy is “in a minute”, Tubridy gave a quick synopsis of his career, including the Late Late Show. He joked about himself as being the third Doctor Who of the talk show, and told of being gifted a red electric vespa from Bono on his last appearance.
There was no mention of the pay scandal that saw him dropped from his RTÉ Radio programme, or his Oireachtas committee grillings in the short interview with Evans.
Tubridy joked that he has presented radio shows in the UK in the place of Terry Wogan and Graham Norton, whenever producers were after an “Irish lilt”.
Then he told an anecdote about Chris Evans gifting him a ticket to see Paul McCartney, and Gerry Ryan getting McCartney to sign the ticket for him.
Tubridy said he is “saving up” to go and see McCartney perform in either Australia, Brazil or Mexico soon.
After a quick chat with a caller, Tubridy thanked Evans for having him and said he’d head on, as he knew that “a real star” was coming up on the show (referring to actor Damian Lewis).
In the last few days Tubridy has made appearances in London bookshops and posed for a photo with Piers Morgan, leading many to wonder what his next move might be.
Tubridy has not been on air since the news broke that RTÉ had underreported his pay over several years, while telling the public he had taken a salary cut.
The broadcaster commissioned a Grant Thornton review which largely found that Tubridy was not at fault for his salary being understated by the broadcaster.
Subsequently, Tubridy issued a public statement in which he claimed that his salary had not been underreported every year that RTÉ said it was.
This statement came at a time when the presenter was in talks with the new Director General of RTÉ, Kevin Bakhurst, about returning to his RTÉ Radio show.
Those talks fell through, with Bakhurst largely attributing the breakdown in the negotiations to the impact that Tubridy’s statement had following the publication of the Grant Thornton review.
Appearing on RTÉ news, Bakhurst said it was important that everyone involved in the process accepted that Tubridy’s salary had been underreported.
Since it was confirmed that Tubridy will not be making any return to RTÉ Radio in the near future, his breakfast show slot has been renamed to ‘The Nine O’Clock show’.
Oliver Callan has been acting as a caretaker presenter, but a permanent presenter has not yet been announced for the show.
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