The Irish public want Cork funnyman Graham Norton to take over from Dáithí Ó Sé … if Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTE, had the budget.
The popular comedian, Graham Norton, beat the United Kingdom presenting giants Ant n Dec and James Corden as well has Ireland’s Late Late post Ryan Tubridy when as the public’s top choice to replace Dáithí Ó Sé as the host of Ireland’s most popular televised festival, The Rose of Tralee.
One of the most influential comedic and presenting icons in British broadcasting, the Cork superstar Graham Norton, is the new presenter the Irish people most want to see hosting the live Rose of Tralee shows on RTE if the national broadcaster had a blank cheque and could afford any famous international presenter they wished. That’s according to a nationwide survey of over 1,000 people carried out by leading online lottery betting company Lottoland.
Read more: Who are the American Roses representing USA at the 2018 Rose of Tralee?
With the €107m proceeds of last year’s property deal at RTE’s Montrose HQ the budget is surely there if Director General Dee Forbes wanted to bring the famed competition out to a wider international audience and she’d surely be in a position to recoup the Bandon reared superstar’s hefty fee for the job with advertising and broadcasting rights as he came in way ahead of the Geordie superstar duo Ant n Dec and the US based James Corden as well as our own Ryan Tubridy and Eamon Dunphy.
Who would you like to see replace Daithi O Se as the host for The Rose of Tralee?
Imagine the consternation down in Kerry if RTE replaced Daithi O’Se with a Corkman? But if the means were possible over half of the Irish population (55%) said they preferred the BAFTA winning presenter over Ant n Dec who had just one in six supporters (16%) and one in eight opting for former ‘Gavin and Stacey’ star and the US Late Late Show presenter James Corden (12%). Former RTE Rose presenter Ryan Tubridy and motormouth Eamon Dunphy were pretty much dismissed as yesterday’s men back at just 7% each and US comedian Jimmy Fallon was at the bottom of the table at just 3% according to the national poll carried out by Empathy Research.
Drilling down into greater detail Graham Norton’s main support came from the 45-54 age group (64%) and his own Munster brethren (64%) obviously being fueled by the Rebel County and his lowest support came from the 18-24 group (40%). Not surprisingly Ant n Dec’s main support came from the 18-24 cohort (30%) whilst Corden’s main vote came from the 35-44 group (21%). Eamon Dunphy got just 3% from the female vote whilst Tubridy’s highest support came from the 65+ group (16%).
Here’s one of the latest clips released by the Rose of Tralee ahead of the pageant, which will be aired live on August 17:
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