The Dunphy Show is an Irish

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

 chat show hosted by Eamon Dunphy

Eamon Dunphy

Eamon Martin Dunphy is an Irish media personality, radio and television presenter, author, sports pundit, as well as a former professional football player. He is best known as a soccer analyst on Raidió Teilifís Éireann 's coverage of the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. He was paid...

 that aired for one series on TV3

TV3 Ireland

TV3 is a free-to-air commercial television network in the Republic of Ireland. Launched on 20 September 1998 it was Ireland's first commercial broadcaster. The channel is owned by TV3 Group a subsidiary of Doughty Hanson & Co.-The TV3 Group:...

 in 2003. The programme featured guest interviews, audience participation and live music from guest music groups. The Dunphy Show aired every Friday night in direct competition with RTÉ

RTE

RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...

's The Late Late Show

The Late Late Show

The Late Late Show, sometimes referred to as The Late Late, or in some cases by the acronym LLS, is the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster and the official flagship television programme of Irish broadcasting company RTÉ...

.

Challenging The Late Late Show

Since 1962 RTÉ's The Late Late Show had enjoyed total dominance of the Irish chat show market on a Saturday night and subsequently on Friday nights. In 2002 TV3 set about devising their own chat show which would go "head-to-head" and challenge RTÉ's monopoly. By the start of 2003 planning was at an advanced stage after six months of preparatory work, however, little details were revealed about the precise nature of the show or who would host. Ironically, the team behind the programme included Cillian Fennell, an ex-RTÉ producer who had worked on The Late Late Show during Gay Byrne

Gay Byrne

Gabriel Mary "Gay" Byrne is a veteran Irish presenter of radio and television. His most notable role was first host of The Late Late Show over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999...

's final season.

In May 2003 TV3 announced that former soccer player and journalist Eamon Dunphy

Eamon Dunphy

Eamon Martin Dunphy is an Irish media personality, radio and television presenter, author, sports pundit, as well as a former professional football player. He is best known as a soccer analyst on Raidió Teilifís Éireann 's coverage of the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. He was paid...

 had signed a contract to present the new show. Following the announcement the media immediately declared a "clash of the chat shows" and a clash of personalities between Dunphy and Pat Kenny

Pat Kenny

Patrick "Pat" Kenny is an Irish broadcaster and former disc jockey and continuity announcer. He is employed by Raidió Teilifís Éireann and is their highest paid presenter. He presents Today with Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday morning between 10:00 and midday...

. In an interview in the RTÉ Guide

RTÉ Guide

The RTÉ Guide is a television and radio listings magazine in Ireland published by RTÉ Commercial Enterprises Ltd, a subsidiary of Raidió Teilifís Éireann....

Kenny described broadcasting as a "hobby for Dunphy" and that "if it goes pear-shaped for Eamon he'll write another book about Gazza

Gazza

-People:* Paul Gascoigne, English footballer, also known as Gazza* Gazza , a Namibian musician-Nickname:*Gary Moore , Irish musician*Valery Gazzaev , Russian football coach*Gary Ablett , Australian Rules footballer...

 or something". Former chat show host Gay Byrne said that "there wasn't enough room for two talk shows" and that TV3 would be "scalded by the experience".

Debut

The Dunphy Show made its debut at 9:00 p.m. on 5 September 2003 for an initial run of thirty programmes. The opening set of guests included former footballer Páidí Ó Sé

Páidí Ó Sé

Páidí Ó Sé is a retired Irish Gaelic football manager and former player. He played football with his local club An Ghaeltacht and was a member of the Kerry senior inter-county team from 1975 until 1987...

, author Candace Bushnell

Candace Bushnell

Candace Bushnell is an American author and columnist based in New York City. She is best known for writing a column that was anthologized in a book, Sex and the City, which in turn became the basis for a popular television series and its subsequent film adaptations.-Personal life:Bushnell was born...

, journalist Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk is an English writer and journalist from Maidstone, Kent. As Middle East correspondent of The Independent, he has primarily been based in Beirut for more than 30 years. He has published a number of books and has reported on the United States's war in Afghanistan and the same country's...

, jockey Kieran Fallon and Huey Morgan from the Fun Loving Criminals, while the musical guests were Joe Dolan

Joe Dolan

Joseph "Joe" Francis Robert Dolan was an Irish entertainer, recorder and singer of easy listening songs...

 and his band, and singer-songwriter Paul Brady

Paul Brady

Paul Joseph Brady is an Irish singer-songwriter, whose work straddles folk and pop. He was interested in a wide variety of music from an early age...

. The opening programme received relatively good reviews, with Shane Hegarty of the Irish Times stating that "while there was little of the controversial Dunphy on show, there remained a real edge about the TV3 host. Ding, ding. End of round one. Kenny should be worried, Dunphy should be happy."

Cancellation

The first edition of The Dunphy Show attracted a total audience of 342,000. The first three shows attracted an average total audience of 260,000 compared to 615,000 for The Late Late Show, however, the numbers tuning in for the third edition of Dunphy's chat show fell to 157,000. In November it was announced that the show would be going off-air for a six week break at Christmas due to commercial reasons and for contractual reasons with Dunphy. This was viewed in some media circles as an indication that the show was failing and it came in for some harsher criticism after a promising start. On 5 December 2003, exactly three months to the day since the show began, TV3 announced that it was cancelling The Dunphy Show.

The Dunphy Show was broadcast for the last time on 12 December 2003. The final segment featured Dunphy thanking his production team and the viewers and, in a nod to the show's theme tune and the battle with The Late Late Show, Dunphy's final words were "I fought the law, and the law won".

Production

The Dunphy Show was broadcast from The Helix Theatre

The Helix

The Helix is a building on the Dublin City University campus between Glasnevinand Whitehall on Dublin's Northside, originally planned to be called the Aula Maxima. It was completed in 2002, and it is described as a "performance space" and holds concerts, university conferring ceremonies and...

 at Dublin City University

Dublin City University

Dublin City University is a university situated between Glasnevin, Santry, Ballymun and Whitehall on the Northside of Dublin in Ireland...

in front of an audience of 450. All bar one of the shows were broadcast live.