An average* of 612,100 watched the entire Late Late Show Valentine’s Special with a 46 per cent share** of the available audience enjoying one of the most talked about shows of the season.
The Valentine’s Special had a reach*** of 1.2 million viewers tuning in over the course of the night.
The show also attracted a 38 per cent share of all 15-34 year olds watching television at the time.
Last Friday’s programme is the most-watched Late Late Show of this year and the third most watched of the season, after The Late Late Toy Show and last October’s Late Late Show Country Special.
The Valentine’s Special featured an audience of more than 200 singletons looking for love, with games, kiss cams and power ballads from star performers Johnny Logan, Bonnie Tyler and Chris de Burgh aimed at fostering romance. The show also featured an amazing story of love and sacrifice from Ireland’s Most Loved Up Couple – Debbie Laffan and Reg Plunkett – and interviews with Dublin footballer Philly McMahon and model Pippa O’Connor.
The Late Late Show Executive Producer Larry Masterson said: “Friday night’s show was great craic and the response we have had, especially from younger viewers has been phenomenal. Fifty years to the weekend the nation was scandalised when a married woman discussed her nightwear – or lack thereof – with Gay Byrne, the Valentine’s Special shows how far we have come as a country. We’re already planning to make next year’s bigger and better than ever”.
Viewers remained enamoured with RTÉ throughout the weekend.
Ireland’s agonising one-point defeat to France in the RBS 6 Nations drew an average of 670,000 viewers and a share of 59 per cent of the available audience to RTÉ2 on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, The Ray D’Arcy Show also enjoyed its highest rating show of the year so far, and third highest rating show of the season, with an average of 441,600 viewers watching on Saturday night as Nicky Byrne debuted his Eurovision entry ‘Sunlight’.
NOTE TO EDITORS:
Ratings Source: TAM Ireland Ltd / Nielsen TAM
*Average audience – The average number of viewers across a programme or series, expressed in 000s. TV viewing is measured minute-by-minute, so the average audience is the average across all of these minutes.
**Share – Share is the percentage of the available audience watching television at the time.
***Reach – Reach is the number of viewers who tuned in for a minute or more of the programme.
Clips for Friday’s The Late Late Show can be found here:
Audience Intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drzS4_hDPUc
Mario Rosenstock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcpkB8icnE
Ireland’s Most Romantic Couple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgxLv_CiCj8
Philly McMahon https://youtu.be/2lgp5y15D90
Tinder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjbCnLGjSwg
Chris De Burgh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM5fBUvSW-c
Johnny Logan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJC4ABi7eMs
Bonnie Tyler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmWqq-bNMvw
Link for some pictures from The Late Late Show Valentine’s Special: http://we.tl/58OgMUgRKB