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Ryan Tubridy on the Late Late Toy Show. Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Ryan Tubridy issues earlier-than-usual callout for Late Late Toy Show participants

The show, usually an annual TV highlight, will likely be forced to adapt – like so many others – to the pandemic era.

RTÉ HAS ISSUED an earlier-than-usual call out to children for applications to be part of what’s likely to be a very different looking Late Late Toy Show. 

“Normally we open the floodgates in September, but we are opening the floodgates now. If you want to be on the Toy Show, if you are a child and you think ‘I can sing I can dance, I can do mimicry, I can do magic, I am the chosen one in the entertainment world’, get in touch,” Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy said this morning. 

Tubridy made the call-out for audition tapes on his RTÉ Radio One show. 

“You can be introverted, extroverted, upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside, it doesn’t matter, all you have to do is be a child. Before you know it, you can be talking to our elves, and you could be on The Late Late Toy Show,” he said. 

The show, usually an annual TV highlight for children and adults alike, will probably be forced to adapt – like so many others – to the pandemic-era. 

Various episodes of the Late Late Show were forced to air without an audience earlier this year and other social distancing measures were also introduced. 

The episodes saw guests appear either via video link or from a safe distance in a near-empty studio. 

Other shows in Ireland have also had face up to the realities of the Covid-19 virus. In July, RTÉ announced that Dancing with the Stars would be cancelled for 2021 because of the pandemic, with the national broadcaster planning to bring it back in 2022. 

“After much discussion, we feel the risks are too high with a production of this scale,” RTÉ’s Head of Entertainment John McHugh said last month. 

It remains to be seen how RTÉ and the Late Late Show will handle the frenetic Toy Show, which typically features live performances alongside a host of children demonstrating the latest toys. 

A spokesperson for RTÉ said that “as with all RTÉ programming, the programme will be made while adhering to RTÉ’s Working Safely on Site/Covid-19 protocols, in line with government and HSE guidelines”.

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    Mute Murph11
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    Aug 10th 2020, 12:03 PM

    Photos with Santa will be great this year. 2 metres apart and everyone wearing face masks . Definitely one for the mantelpiece

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    Mute BriP75
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    Aug 10th 2020, 12:18 PM

    @Murph11: oh jasus I will be under the mistletoe on my one

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Aug 10th 2020, 12:22 PM

    @Murph11: I don’t think we will see Santa in any of the shopping centres nor community or corporate events this year. He’s going to sleep this one out.

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    Mute Pat Kelly
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    Aug 10th 2020, 4:16 PM

    @BriP75: great ta see RTE getting their priorities right.. Toy show in the middle of a pandemic is all worried about ?!!

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    Mute Brendan Woods
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    Aug 10th 2020, 1:26 PM

    In Tubridy world everything is fine and dandy. No one will need to worry about money for Christmas and everyone will be back working. Thousands are still out of work and he is checking out Christmas jumpers. The man needs to grow up.

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    Mute LangerDan
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    Aug 10th 2020, 11:44 AM

    “Aaaand it’s one for everyone in…feck it…everyone at home.”

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    Mute BriP75
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    Aug 10th 2020, 12:24 PM

    This will be a very strange Christmas

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    Mute Molly1952
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    Aug 10th 2020, 1:21 PM

    This might be a good opportunity to have a different sort of toy show….. simpler and less hyped, – like it used to be years ago. With toys that ordinary people can afford and less of the mardi-gras carry-on.
    (Jeez….reading that back I sound like Ebenezer Scrooge ….LOL)

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    Mute Paul
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    Aug 10th 2020, 12:14 PM

    Santa will be allowed travel as he will pass the covid test and as fire kills the virus that means chimneys will be 100% safe so yippee.

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    Mute Tom Ripley
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    Aug 10th 2020, 11:57 AM

    Open d pubz !!!!

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    Mute Michael Patrick Newell
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    Aug 10th 2020, 12:21 PM

    Christmas is cancelled lads sure other than when he crosses over from Northern Ireland to here where he doesn’t have to, every where else he will have to self isolate

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    Mute Da_Dell
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    Aug 10th 2020, 3:24 PM

    “You can be introverted, extroverted, upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside, it doesn’t matter, all you have to do is be a child. Before you know it, you can be talking to our elves”

    Tubridy talking about himself and talking about talking to RTE.

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    Mute Pauline Gallagher
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    Aug 10th 2020, 3:34 PM

    Christmas will be so odd this year. Dad wont get to have a pint then either, im guessing

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    Mute Peter Coen
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    Aug 10th 2020, 1:02 PM

    I wonder will Christmas be cancelled?

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