{"id":260510,"date":"2025-12-31T21:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/260510\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T21:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:21:18","slug":"the-best-new-years-eve-tv-shows-ronan-keating-puts-jools-holland-and-graham-norton-to-shame-by-actually-going-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/260510\/","title":{"rendered":"The best New Year\u2019s Eve TV shows: Ronan Keating puts Jools Holland and Graham Norton to shame by actually going \u2018live\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nKeating rings in the new year in real time while veterans offer their usual pre-recorded fare\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how I had the fortune of spending New Years of yore. And then things got more expensive. I resented the prospect of paying a wedge to stand in my local, only to get doused in beer and navigate my way home in the absence of taxis. I\u2019ve grown older and less tolerant of crowds. And then came the kids.<\/p>\n

Those hard-earned New Year\u2019s escapes to the Canaries are now a distant memory, replaced by 10pm bedtimes in my mother-in-law\u2019s.<\/p>\n

These days, it\u2019s karaoke with the kids until we convince them it\u2019s midnight (really 11pm) thanks to King Julien\u2019s YouTube countdown, and then himself and myself settle in with the box to ring in the New Year by living vicariously through someone else\u2019s riotous celebrations.<\/p>\n

Like many, I hugely depend on the \u201clive\u201d offerings every year so we can share a communal Auld Lang Syne without the beer showers or the taxi anxiety. And perhaps it\u2019s the passage of time or the fact undisclosed quantities of Prosecco had been consumed, but I recall more live music events being beamed into our living rooms as the bells chime.<\/p>\n

Among them, a proliferation of Imelda May music vehicles and events like New Year\u2019s Eve Live \u2013 The Ultimate Gathering.<\/p>\n

\n

Musical guests busting out the gladrags back in October include David Gray, Lyra, Gavin James, Garron Noone, The Stunning, and \u2013 of course \u2013 Sharon Shannon<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At least we still get a live element \u2013 a kind of NYE adjacent moment that bursts onto the screen around 11.45pm when The Late Late New Year\u2019s Eve Show (10.25pm, RT\u00c9 One) cuts live to Dublin Castle for the midnight performance, this year from Inhaler.<\/p>\n

At the time of going to print, Patrick Kielty\u2019s guest line-up has just been announced. This is pretty wild given The Late Late NYE episode itself was reportedly pre-recorded back on October 28… Happy All Hallows\u2019 New Year\u2019s Eve everybody!<\/p>\n

Musical guests busting out the gladrags back in October include David Gray, Lyra, Gavin James, Garron Noone, The Stunning, and \u2013 of course \u2013 Sharon Shannon, squeezing her box alongside The Late Late Show House Band. Non-musical faces will come courtesy of Olympians Kate O\u2019Connor and Fintan McCarthy, alongside Dermot Bannon and cast members of The Traitors Ireland.<\/p>\n

Keeping with shows that aren\u2019t exactly live is Jools\u2019 Hootenanny (11.30pm, BBC Two). For years, I blindly believed he was busting out the bagpipes in real-time, and we were crowing Auld Lang Syne together. So naive of me.<\/p>\n

\"Graham<\/p>\n

Graham Norton welcomes guests such as Laura Dern, Tom Hiddleston and Will Arnett. Photo: BBC<\/p>\n

Either way, from 11.30pm, we\u2019ll have Jools shouting, clapping and spinning around alongside an array of guests that could be straight out of the late noughties, including Ronnie Wood, Lulu, Jesse J, The Kooks, Craig David and \u2013 would you believe it \u2013 Imelda May. Well, it wouldn\u2019t be New Year\u2019s Eve telly without her popping up somewhere.<\/p>\n

And on the plus side, the Hootenanny is historically always recorded in mid-December, so at least you know the festive vibes are real.<\/p>\n

As has become customary, The Graham Norton NYE Show will be spreading itself across both British and Irish terrestrial TV at slightly different times. If you\u2019d like to ring in the New Year on time, bubbles in hand with Hollywood\u2019s celebrity couch potatoes, best watch on Virgin Media One from 11.55pm (the BBC will air earlier, between 10.30pm and 11.30pm).<\/p>\n

You will be cosying up with an array of famous faces, contractually obliged to plug their latest movie\/mini-series. Among them, The Night Manager\u2019s Tom Hiddleston, Laura Dern and her Is This Thing On? co-star Will Arnett. We also have the rapidly ageing Owen Cooper from Adolescence.<\/p>\n

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Ronan\u2019s rollercoaster will even hand us over to the best bit of all: the NYE Live Fireworks at midnight<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Norton\u2019s music offering will be banged out by Alison Limerick, because who wouldn\u2019t want to mark the 30th anniversary of Where Love Lives? after the John Lewis Christmas ad trampled all over everyone\u2019s raucous rave recollections.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s this, shining like a bright star in the otherwise largely pre-recorded wasteland of NYE telly? On BBC One, we actually have a countdown show that\u2019s allegedly live. And just when you think it couldn\u2019t get better, it\u2019s only hosted by Ronan Keating, with appearances from Boyzone buddies Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch.<\/p>\n

So fret not, fellow couch bound cohort \u2013 this year, we\u2019re in safe hands thanks to Ronan Keating and Friends: New Year\u2019s Eve Party (11.30pm, BBC One). Ronan\u2019s rollercoaster will even hand us over to the best bit of all: the NYE Live Fireworks at midnight, with more merriment beyond.<\/p>\n

Between Graham, Imelda, and now Ro and his buds teaching the neighbours how a proper telly knees-up is done, it\u2019s clear no New Year\u2019s bash lands without the Paddies. Fair play to us. Athbhliain shona!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keating rings in the new year in real time while veterans offer their usual pre-recorded fare That\u2019s how…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[99378,18,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-260510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-daily-features","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115816279900480409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}