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Sorry Nidge: Toy Show beats Love/Hate as most-watched programme of the year

Beaten by a bunch of kids.

AS IF IT hadn’t been a tough enough year for Nidge and the boys, they’ve now been beaten by a bunch of kids.

Ratings figures show that Friday night’s Late Late Toy Show was the most-watched programme on Irish television so far this year, ahead of last month’s season finale of Love/Hate.

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Almost 1.4 million people watched the Friday broadcast, which featured 231 kids, more than 330 toys, Robbie Keane and Domhnall, and Ryan Tubridy holding everything together.

Love/Hate can’t be too disappointed though; The Toy Show juggernaut is frequently the most popular programme in the country each year – plus RTE’s crime drama got 1,007,500 viewers with the finale of series four on 11 November.

RTE said this afternoon that more than 120,000 people streamed the show on the RTE player between Friday night and Sunday.  It was a hit on social media too: there were more than 100,000 mentions of the show on Facebook and over 52,000 tweets about it.

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Meanwhile, TV3′s inaugural rival toy show, which was broadcast at 8pm on Friday, didn’t do too badly either with 353,000 viewers tuning in, making it the most watched programme in its time slot.

The executive producer of The Late Late Show said the programme is a “national event which has become a huge part of our culture”.

“We have also been overwhelmed by the feedback from viewers who were watching from all over the world,” said Kathy Fox.

We pushed Ryan in ways he hasn’t been pushed before, but he didn’t disappoint. He was very brave, a little bit bold but absolutely brilliant.

All of the toys featured on the show were donated to various charities afterwards.

Read: Late Late Toy Show 2013 best bits… in pictures and video >

Read: Robbie, Mary, Bosco and cups… The Late Late Toy Show 2013 as it happened >

Read: The Love/Hate season finale: 11 questions we want answered >

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38 Comments
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    Mute James Murphy
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:10 PM

    All everybody is talking about is that young fella that met Robbie, which is right too. Nice to see an uplifting story.

    364
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    Mute Adam Walsh
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:28 PM

    Since Ryan took over the toy show gets better every year.

    234
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    Mute Max
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:38 PM

    Ya but anything is better than Pat Kenny but fair play to tubs

    162
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    Mute Murph11
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 6:46 PM

    If domhnall charged d journal a euro every time he was mentioned this week and his pic shown, he’d have a gud Xmas

    115
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    Mute Stephen Small
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:08 PM

    Was great being there. The atmosphere was something else.

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    Mute Goggles McGlasses
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:27 PM

    I’m going to admit, I gave you a red thumb but it was 100% jealousy…

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    Mute Stephen Small
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:31 PM

    That’s cool man. Completely understand, cos if the roles were reversed, I’d be the same. The most common response from people who found out I was going was….B**tard!!!

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    Mute Foxys van
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:47 PM

    Stephen
    How do you go about getting tix for the you show is it a lottery ?

    39
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    Mute Foxys van
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:47 PM

    Toy*

    13
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    Mute Stephen Small
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:57 PM

    It’s a total lottery Foxy. I got one through work, and even that was a lottery. Was being offered ridiculous sums of money from people for the ticket.

    The was a bloke in the audience, easily in his 50′s/ 60′s kept saying to himself “I can’t believe in at the Toy Show, it’s a dream come true!”

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    Mute Foxys van
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 6:06 PM

    Cheers man !!

    12
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    Mute Stephen Small
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 6:15 PM

    I think they open applications on line at the start of October. I heard someone say something about 40,000 people applying for 200 tickets.

    35
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    Mute Max
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:11 PM

    Ryan Tubridy made $hit of nidge

    95
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    Mute David Harrington
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:47 PM

    Imagine the ratings of a crossover episode were Ryan Tubridy gets kneecapped by the IRA instead of Ado. They’d be off the scale.

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    Mute andrew
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:52 PM

    As if ending the bail out wouldn’t be enough. This would be the icing on the cake. And THEN imagine it ACTUALLY happened. I’m logging off for a few minutes. The prospect is just too much lol

    8
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    Mute Max
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:58 PM

    Tubridy is the best host for TLLS, Gaybo was too old and out of touch with anybody under 50, Pat was boring as fcuk and out of touch with everyone on the planet whereas tubs is a young, in touch sound all-round great guy

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    Mute davey p
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 6:55 PM

    I was at the late late a few weeks ago, a pretty boring episode that night, the best part was the ad breaks when ryan was talking to the audiance, and then chatting to us afterwards, a really sound bloke

    58
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    Mute andrew
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 7:51 PM

    Dreadful presenter on radio and tv though (as his continuously falling ratings show)

    28
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    Mute O' Loughlin Ronan
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    Dec 3rd 2013, 8:23 AM

    @max, if you ask me, Gerry ryan should have got it, great talker and peoples person, loved his bold and cheeky style of presenting, his missed on radio..

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    Mute Geert Wilders
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:33 PM

    Tubridy is an insufferable prat

    73
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    Mute George Beattie
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:44 PM

    Gaybo was my obvious favourite having grown up with him… Pats awkwardness worked.. But Tuberty is too much of a plonker can’t stand him!!

    51
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    Mute perthy
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:24 PM

    So surprise, love hate was crap this season

    39
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    Mute Charles O'Dowd
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:43 PM

    After 30 secs of googling:
    ” In October 2008, TAM Ireland awarded Nielsen TV Audience Measurement a further five year contract to supply television audience measurement for the Irish markets, from 1 September 2010 until 31August 2015.

    New contract highlights include:

    - The gradual increase of panel home from 800 in September 2010 to 1050 by September 2015″

    So would I be correct in saying all the national TV rating figures we are spoonfed are based on the viewing habits of 1,000 people? Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong…

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    Mute andrew
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:50 PM

    You are right

    But more to the point, people shouldn’t confuse popularity with quality

    46
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    Mute Little Jim
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:56 PM

    Shush, the price of the adverts is based on those figures.

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    Mute Finn MacNamara
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    Dec 3rd 2013, 12:53 AM

    With a population of 4,600,000, and taking a confidence level of 95%, a sample of 1,000 homes actually gives a confidence interval of ±3% (assuming a fully representative sample).
    It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty accurate.

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    Mute Charles O'Dowd
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    Dec 3rd 2013, 1:34 AM

    Yes Finn, but how random is the sample? I suspect the homes these ratings boxes find themselves in are more TV orientated than most, for a growing number of homes the TV is merely a large screen to display online media.

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    Mute Captain Chav-Tastic
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 6:45 PM

    Love/hate…. What an awful awful program

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    Mute Niall Gilmartin
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 9:13 PM

    The Late Late Show, what an awful excuse for a chat show, this awful program is a pale imitation of its once great self, and is now third division compared to Graham Norton or Alan Carr.

    16
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    Mute Mary Lalor
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 7:31 PM

    It’s a show for children and their parents. It should be televised between 5 pm & 7 pm.

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    Mute pipkelly98
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 10:24 PM

    Mary were you not allowed to stay up and watch it as a child! That’s the best bit for kids getting to stay up later than usual and watch it with the whole family! :)

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    Mute MrKnow
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 5:11 PM

    He’ll be contacting you via mobile riigghhhtt.

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    Mute Tim Higgins
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 7:22 PM

    The late late could potentially be great every week only for the government censorship and the fact they have RTE by the rollers.

    17
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    Mute Miss Filed
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 9:37 PM

    Depressing viewing – just a big advert for the kind of consumer items that will bankrupt parents this Christmas…

    11
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    Mute SinAssist
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    Dec 3rd 2013, 12:38 AM

    It’s a galling portrayal of seasonal smarm and the cynical subversion of childhood status symbolism!!

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    Mute Darren Bates
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    Dec 3rd 2013, 12:43 AM

    I’d say you’re an angel on Christmas morning!

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    Mute James Gorman
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    Dec 2nd 2013, 11:34 PM

    Not a fair comparison – once off programmer against a series. How many viewers would toy show have if it was shown every Friday for 4 weeks.

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    Mute Will Hourihan
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    Dec 3rd 2013, 8:31 AM

    The best bit of the night was the band that played ‘Highway to Hell’ by ACDC. They were awesome for a bunch of young lads. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XYz97oD44E

    4
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