A brand new series of the hit chat show with a difference. The format remains the same: stand-up, three surprise guest slots, a sketch and a music performance, all filmed in front of a live studio audience.
Tommy realises that the mystery guest format has the potential for disaster…or some kind of delightful mess. A master of improvisation and freewheeling wildness, Tommy thrives on the adrenaline of no preparation.
For Tiernan the element of surprise is key to the success of the show: “One of the great things about the old Late Late Show was not knowing who the guests were until they appeared on screen, it kept the whole thing lively, so I just thought, well how would it be if the host didn’t know who they were until they walked out either. Doing it front of a live audience is the key for me, it all seems like good unpredictable fun.”
About The Tommy Tiernan Show
No stranger to television chat shows, Tommy Tiernan has appeared on some of the biggest and most established ones in the world. With four appearances at The Ed Sullivan Theatre for The David Letterman Show, Tiernan cut his chat-show teeth on The Late Late Show almost 20 years ago, with a performance that helped catapult his stand-up career. Since then he’s starred in sitcoms for Channel 4, fronted his own BBC series and hosted a number of radio series. But, for sometime, he’s wanted to host his own TV chat show – one with a difference. One with an edge that re-invigorates the format.
In summer of 2015, Tommy hosted his own radio chat show on RTÉ 2FM. Running for four consecutive weeks, the mini series was recorded live, in front of an audience, at Dublin’s Sugar Club and transmitted in a Saturday, lunchtime slot. But there was a catch – neither the host, or the audience, knew the identity of the guest until they walked out on stage! The show worked so well that Tommy felt, having road-tested it on radio, it would transfer perfectly to television. In December 2015, a TV Pilot for The Tommy Tiernan Show was filmed in front of a live studio audience, and subsequently broadcast to very positive reaction. Following on from this, a six part series was commissioned for TX on RTÉ One in early 2017 – it too was very positively received.
The show is recorded in front of a live audience and is produced by RTE’s Therese Kelly and David Power of Power Pictures.