The Late Late Show (season 47)

The 47th season of The Late Late Show, the world's longest-runningchat show, began on 5 September 2008 and concluded on 29 May 2009. It aired on RTÉ One each Friday evening from 21:30.

As by then customary, the series featured a variety of unpleasant moments for the presenter, Pat Kenny, who grappled with issues as diverse as viewer telephone competitions, contentious performances and perplexing interviewees. This season also marked the only occasion on which Kenny was absent during his ten-year tenure, following the unexpected death of his mother. Gerry Ryan guest-hosted the 24 October edition of the show in Kenny's absence. In February 2009, Kenny was widely criticised by the Irish media for his attempted interview of the Pete Doherty, when he personalised the English rock musician and ignored his music. Late the following month, live on air, he announced his intention to quit.

Before the season began presenter Pat Kenny had been reluctant to sign up for the show again.

The opening episode of the season was broadcast from the Wexford Opera House on 5 September 2008. Guests included the Taoiseach Brian Cowen,

In the first of a number of incidents related to phone-in competitions, on 12 September 2008, Kenny attempted to give away an Austrian family holiday to a viewer. Encountering an unenthusiastic response from the winner, and aided by a joke from the comedian Jimmy Carr which referred to the timing of the prize with the revelations contained in the Fritzl case, the presenter then broke down in a fit of laughter live on air. The humorous incident has since achieved cult status on YouTube and other sites.

The comedian Tom O'Connor made his fourteenth appearance on the show in this episode.

The Gerry Ryan edition of The Late Late Show featured, among other guests, the stand-up comedian Tommy Tiernan. Tiernan made what was the latest in a series of appearances on the show to have provoked debate and given cause for complaint. On the show Tiernan made reference to a man left severely disabled by a motorcycle accident and spoke a joke involving an act of sexual intercourse with a Traveller. A number of viewers, including the mother of a boy with Down syndrome and a road crash victim, took offence to Tiernan's joke about a disabled man in Saint Michael's Rehabilitation Hospital, Dún Laoghaire, from whom the comedian was attempting to purchase a motorbike. Tiernan's punchline was that the man could not accept his payment as he had no grip. There were complaints over the comedian's acting “spasticated” and in a “mocking fashion which can only be described as grossly insulting”. The Traveller support organisation, Pavee Point took offence at Tiernan’s remarks about having sex with a Traveller, accusing him of acting "in a disgusting, outrageous and racist way" and criticising him for suggesting that Travellers were in some way "unclean, possibly stupid and sexually promiscuous". RTÉ defended its guest by stating that Tiernan's Irish humour was a celebration of the diversity of modern Ireland, the practice of "insulting people in a humorous way". The Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC) upheld eight "derogatory" and "totally inappropriate" complaints against the show and criticised Ryan for "actively engaging" and "egging on" the comedian.

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