The Late Late Toy Show

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The Late Late Toy Show
Dustin the Turkey regularly appears on The Late Late Toy Show. Here he presents a gift to former host Gay Byrne in an edition from the 1990s. When Byrne opened it he discovered a Pat Kenny clock.
Genre	Talk show/Children
Presented by	Pat Kenny
Country of origin	Ireland
Language(s)	English
Production
Location(s)	RTÉ Studio 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4, Ireland
Broadcast
Original channel	RTÉ One
Original run	– 28 November 2008
Chronology
Related shows	The Late Late Show
External links
Official website

The Late Late Toy Show is an annual influential Irish institution, an edition of the world's longest-running^{[1][2][3][4][5]} chat show, The Late Late Show broadcast on RTÉ One in Ireland each Friday evening. The Toy Show, as it is referred to, is broadcast in late November or early December each year. It is regularly the most watched programme of the year on Irish television, with viewership figures rising steadily in recent years. The show, which consists of an adult-only studio audience^[6] dressed in traditional Christmas attire, does not accept advertisements which promote toys for its commercial breaks but, whilst new gadget-type toys regularly break down during the live show, being featured on the programme itself has been said to have a major boost to sales of a product over the following number of weeks in the build-up to the Christmas period.^[7]

Currently presented by the show's regular host, Pat Kenny, the show has previously been presented by Gay Byrne during his tenure at the helm. Byrne habitually wore a Christmas jumper each year, but Kenny has tended to wear a "naff" grey jumper in recent years.^[8] Dustin the Turkey, a high-profile entertainment figure in Ireland, makes an annual appearance, usually bringing a gift for the presenter. These gifts when produced tend to have a comedy effect and in the past have included a miniature antique chair and a Pat Kenny clock, ominously presented to Kenny's predecessor Gay Byrne. The 2008 edition was broadcast on RTÉ One on 28 November 2008 at 21:35.^[9]

[edit] History

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (November 2008)

In 1997, Dustin presented Gay Byrne with a miniature antique chair during the veteran presenter's second-last Toy Show. The stunt alluded to a controversy that occurred when the winner of an antiques restoration competition run by the show claimed credit for a chair which had been worked on by another person.^[10]

[edit] Recent history

Jerry Seinfeld waves to the audience after being presented with his Superman on the 2007 Toy Show. Host Pat Kenny stands pleasantly to the right clapping his hands together.

[edit] 2005 edition

The 2005 Toy Show was broadcast on 2 December 2005, attracting 1.1 million viewers as the most watched programme on Irish television that year. It was also the most watched edition of The Late Late Show since Gay Byrne's final show in 1999. ^[11]

[edit] 2006 edition

The 2006 Toy Show was broadcast on 1 December 2006. Six-year-old Millie (Philomena) Murray, who, along with her four-year-old brother Gavin Murray, had recently been burned out of her car in Limerick, left her hospital bed to make an appearance. She requested a doll to play with for the show. Her brother was too unwell to feature on the show after the incident that led to over twelve weeks of hospital treatment for the pair.^[12] Pat Kenny was later criticised in a study by the Equality Authority for his hosting of the show, in which he persistently reinforced stereotypes of gender roles. An example was a human skull shown to ooze slime, of which the presenter uttered the comment "made for boys, I think".^[13]

[edit] 2007 edition

The 2007 Toy Show was broadcast on 30 November 2007, attracting over one million viewers^[14] or seven tenths of the available audience, making it the most watched television programme in Ireland at that time of 2007.^[15] Broadcast over the traditional four parts, it contained a performance from James Blunt, the annual appearance of Dustin, book reviews and Miriam O'Shea who performed a rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". The 2007 Toy Show also played host to an interview with comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Kenny expressed a lack of knowledge about his subject from the very beginning when he introduced him as "Jerry Seinfield". There was much uncomfortable chat on the topic of bees (Seinfeld was on the show to promote his new movie, Bee Movie) and Kenny then presented him with a cheap imitation of his favourite superhero, Superman. Seinfeld, who had previously lashed out at Larry King over his ignorance, remained tight-lipped and walked off without informing Kenny of his correct name. ^[16] The 2007 Toy Show was opened by the soprano Oisín Nolan who ascended a hanging crescent moon as Kenny entered the studio fresh from his visit to Santa in Lapland. The show was closed by The Wexford Singers.

[edit] 2008 edition

The 2008 Toy Show aired on 28 November 2008 and was Pat Kenny's tenth Toy Show.^[19] It achieved a total audience of 1,199,000 to become the most viewed television programme across all channels available in Ireland since 2001. It was the fourth consecutive year that the show cleared the one million viewers mark, with 275,000 of those watching being children and almost 800,000 watchers being adults.^[20]

The programme proved controversial, with controversy beginning to generate one week before broadcast, when the current value of tickets was questioned. When a competition winner refused two tickets to the show as her prize at the end of the 21 November edition of The Late Late Show, visibly infuriated presenter Pat Kenny tore them up live on air. Kenny questioned why she had entered the competition if she had not wanted to attend the Toy Show (the tickets were just part of the prize; also on offer was €10,000). In the aftermath, the winner, identified as Barbara Heavey from Cork, explained to a newspaper that she had entered the competition "out of boredom", had "no interest in watching children play with toys for two hours" and had no children of her own. She did not see the actual tearing of the tickets as she had turned off the television "to prevent an echo on the line" and attempted to suggest that they either be raffled or donated to someone else only to be drowned out by Kenny and his audience's vocal disbelief. ^[21] Despite numerous attempts by RTÉ to have her attend, she said she would be "bored stiff", wasn't interested in toys and, if she had to attend the show, would probably "set off the smoke alarms by chain-smoking in the toilets".^[22] Kenny did not let the matter rest however, opening his morning radio show the following Monday with a five minute chat to his listeners in which he implied that the torn-up tickets were of more value than All-Ireland final and Munster v. All Blacks tickets. ^[23] Within minutes footage was uploaded onto the video hosting website YouTube, with spoofs of the incident also created.^[24][25] and Heavey was congratulated in numerous national newspapers.^[26]

Two and a half hours before the 2008 Toy Show got underway Kenny appeared on Aidan Power's The Cafe with alter-ego Oliver Callan. (19:00). Kenny revealed McFly would perform, the only guest he was willing to reveal to Power. Power then mimicked the torn ticket incident by teasing Kenny with two tickets before plucking them from his grasp and tearing them into pieces, after which Kenny engaged in some turkey dialogue with the rest of The Cafe.^[27] In an announcement aired before the Nine O'Clock News, Kenny let slip that Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May from BBC's Top Gear would appear. During the show, Kenny once again referenced the ticket fiasco when, whilst promoting another competition with a prize of a car and €10,000, he said he would "tear up" the vehicle if the winner refused to take it. Nicky Byrne of Westlife appeared with his twins Rocco and Jay and met 10-year-old Shauna Byrne, a fan of his who was battling cystic fibrosis at the time but later died on 30 January 2009.^[28] Sarah Ferguson was present for the annual children's book section, where she listened to some of the children speak the Irish language. McFly, in their second Toy Show appearance, performed "Do Ya" from their Radioactive album. The closing act was RTÉ Cór na nÓg, singing Jingle Bells. ^[29]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Behind the scenes at the 2008 Toy Show Video
• Footage of the 2008 declination of tickets
• Pat Kenny's chat about tickets for the 2008 show on Today with Pat Kenny (at around 3/4 minutes). RTÉ Radio 1. 24 November 2008.