In the December issue of RSVP, we caught up with Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty to talk the Toy Show amongst other things, including career highlights and juggling it all
RTÉ Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty(Image: Andres Poveda)
It has been a tough year for Patrick Kielty, between the sad loss of his mum Mary back in March and his high-profile marriage split from TV presenter Cat Deeley over the summer.
But with the support from Late Late Show viewers, he is looking forward to Christmas at home and hosting his third Toy Show.
Patrick tells RSVP: “From the get go with this show, the amount of people who have been in my corner and the goodwill that has come my way, there is definitely no other show in the world like it, in terms of the relationship that you and your audience have with each other.”
For Patrick, Christmas starts with the annual TV event, much to the joy of his sons Milo, 7, and James, 5, who are now starting to realise that their dad actually has quite a cool job!
“The first year, the idea for them was that I was hosting a toy show. Second year, I was doing The Toy Show,” he says, before adding with a laugh: “They veer from being impressed to wanting to know more, which is always dangerous.”
Here, RSVP catches up with Patrick about Christmas at home in Dundrum, Toy Show traditions with his two boys and why he won’t be making any New Year’s resolutions in January.
We also catch up about those Celebrity Traitors rumours, why he never took advice from Ryan Tubridy and how he juggles a busy career in broadcasting, comedy and acting between Ireland and the UK.
December is here and it’s nearly Toy Show time – does this mark the start of Christmas for you?
To be honest I am delighted the Toy Show is back airing in December. Sticking the tree up in November always felt a wee bit early. I can definitely now sign up to it being Christmas time and decorating the tree when the Toy Show rolls around.
You’re gearing up to present your third Toy Show, can you believe how quickly it has come around?
I really can’t, to be honest. It very much feels like yesterday I was running around RTÉ and people were very nervously asking me how I felt hosting my first one. What I didn’t realise was that they were nervous about me messing up the Toy Show [laughs]. It feels like a long time since that first one, but it also feels like yesterday.
Do you still feel pressure and nerves as host of the most watched TV show of the year in the country?
Not so much now. The thing I always find is, when you’ve got kids yourself, you know how ideas can go right or wrong when kids get together. I’ve been on enough sides of football and GAA pitches to know that you can plan as much as you want, but these things will go their own way! I never really put that pressure on myself. For me, the key was to always get brilliant kids – and there’s never a shortage of those – and then some fun toys, put it together. You can do a running order and think you know where it’s going, but it very rarely does.
How much say do you have in the creative process?
The brilliant thing is we have a team who have worked on this show for many years and know what items work and what potentially doesn’t. What’s lovely about it is that they involve me in the process. The production team will make the decision on who is on the show – I host the show, I don’t produce it. But it’s very much collaborative. Whenever they find someone who is a bit special and tell me, “you need to see this,” it’s exciting. The Toy Show team even has their own office with a lock on the door in RTÉ.
Are Milo and James impressed by the fact you host the Toy Show and your job in general?
I mean it’s a cool thing if dad can get them near the toys! There’s a very limited level of credibility that goes there. They were very impressed last year when we had the Olympians running through Smyths Toy Superstores – which is just the Mecca, Croke Park, Wembley Stadium, for kids. They were stunned the kids could go in and pick whatever toys they wanted. The main game that’s currently happening is trying to find out the theme of this year’s show. I’ve gone into full interrogation-you-will-not-break-me mode. The first year, the idea for them was that I was hosting a toy show. Second year, I was doing The Toy Show. Now they are more in the know, the onion sort of unpeels. We’ll be in the car doing the school run and the question of the theme comes up. They think they can catch me out now and have started working as a team. I had a prosthetics fitting a couple of weeks ago, I told them and they immediately asked if it was for the Toy Show. I then realised even telling them that was probably too much. They veer from being impressed to wanting to know more, which is always dangerous.
Is it a tradition that they come over and watch it live on the Friday night or do you watch it all together?
I like to watch it with them. Last year I got a kick out of seeing their faces watching me dressed as Kevin from Home Alone. I think that’s the plan again for this year, we’ll see.
How will you celebrate Christmas this year?
I don’t really know what’s happening there. It’ll just be the usual, family getting together and that sort of thing. Generally I find everything starts too early. Once the Toy Show is done and you get that out of the way, you can think further down the line.
Do you have any Christmas traditions?
Tradition is normally Dundrum. There is a very nice local pub down the road. I live outside the village, more in the townlands, so this would be more the bar that the farmers would drink in. They open every Christmas morning for one hour. There is normally a walk down there for a sneaky pint before someone tries to burn the turkey. So that’s a tradition I love to follow every year.
You took over the Late Late Show from Ryan Tubridy in 2023 with a three-year contract. Would you like to stay on as host?
I love the job, it’s no secret in saying that the gig means so much to me, in terms of me growing up and watching it. Nothing is forever, and I’ve always said I’m a lighthouse keeper. The show is bigger than the host and there were hosts before me and there will be hosts after me. None of these things are set in stone.
Have you gotten into a routine with hosting the Late Late and juggling your other jobs?
I haven’t had a routine in my life since I started working in this space when I was 21. The joke is always, “Where is the bag?” And the bag is the bag at the bottom of the bed. It doesn’t matter whether you are at home or at a hotel, that bag is always there, kind of half packed, because you’re always going somewhere. I’ve always liked that wee bit of unpredictability. But this is probably the most routine I’ve had in my life, in terms of having a show you know you’re doing on Fridays and planning stuff around it. But there’s going to be more stand-up to come, I’d love to do more acting and a bit of writing too. There are all different bits and pieces in the pipeline.
How does your working week look with commuting between the UK and Ireland?
There is no solid routine in terms of the Late Late, especially at this time of year. All bets are off between shooting Toy Show adverts, doing different fittings and other things. The working week is very much what is required for the show that specific week, and at this time of year it’s hand on deck.
Are you more recognised in public since taking over the show?
100%. For the first season I kept my head down and didn’t really go out. There was a point where I was out for a night in Dublin and was weirdly shocked by the amount of people that I bumped into. Loads of people watch and talk about the show. I was over in Mayo earlier this year and just being out and about, you do notice it more. I was walking through Connolly Station, because I sometimes get the train down from Newry as my house in Dundrum is close by, and I get the older people recognising me and now I’m also getting kids doing the double take at me. The first year I hosted the Toy Show, they didn’t have a clue who I was. Now it’s happening loads with kids in the last few weeks. Season one would’ve been the parents tapping the kids to say, “That’s the guy who does the Toy Show,” and now it’s the other way around. It’s fun when stuff like that happens.
Did you ever reach out to Pat Kenny or Ryan Tubridy for advice?
No. I was lucky I had done a couple of series of chat shows on BBC One. The brilliant thing about Pat and Ryan is that they would never dream of patronising you with advice for the show. Everybody has to make the show what they want to be. It would be interesting to sit down with them now that I’m established and have a chat about what we may have in common, things nobody else knows, because it’s such a small club of people who can talk about it. But no, there was never any advice beforehand.
You thanked viewers at home for their support after a difficult year for you at the top of the first episode of the season back in September. Is there a sense of community between you and the audience?
100%. From the get go with this show, the amount of people who have been in my corner and the goodwill that has come my way, there is definitely no other show in the world like it in terms of the relationship that you and your audience have with each other. People are very protective of the show. There is lots of goodwill towards me. But people will tell me what they like and what they don’t like. That’s when you know there is a sense of community around it, when people talk to you the way family would. People will say to me, “Paddy, you’re doing very well – I didn’t like that, but I thought this was good”. Honest discourse is always good.
What has been your highlight as host of the Late Late Show so far?
I mean, getting to sit three feet away from Christy Moore singing Viva La Quinta Brigada was a weird, surreal thing. As a kid watching him sit with Gay Byrne on the telly singing the same song, that was a wonderful pinch me moment.
Richard Osman recently said on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast that you’d be brilliant on Celebrity Traitors – would you do it?
I don’t think I would be as good as he potentially thinks! It is interesting. A lot of people were watching that show and when you see how various people are coming out of it… I think they may have a slightly harder task booking for season two than season one on that one. That’s just my thoughts. Alan Carr was brilliant, but with all of those shows you are a slave to the edit. I hosted Fame Academy with Claudia Winkleman for a couple of seasons. We’re due to catch up soon so I will be interested to get the scoop on it from her.
You also hosted the first series of Love Island, so you know your reality TV. Were you ever offered to do Strictly, I’m A Celebrity or any shows like that in the UK?
Lots of offers come in, but I think hosting is the right place to be on those shows.
The New Year is around the corner, do you make any resolutions in January?
I really don’t. I used to try and fail miserably. The more you build these things up, the more you build yourself up to fail. The other problem is that there are a lot of Kielty birthdays in January. People ask if I’m doing Dry January and I’m really not. My eldest son’s birthday is on the 11th, my brother’s on the 15th, my other brother’s is on the 25th and I’m on the 31st. So the idea that there’s going to be less cake and Guinness in the month of January doesn’t really work. I tend to push all of that talk down the road and say, “We’ll talk about it at Lent”. And by the time Lent comes around you hope people have forgotten you said that [laughs]. I tend not to be that type of person.
This interview originally appeared in the December 2025 issue of RSVP Magazine.