Saturday Live (Irish TV series)

Saturday Live
Genre	Light entertainment
Presented by	Various
Country of origin	Ireland
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	3
Production
Location(s)	Studio 1/Studio 4, RTÉ Television Centre, Donnybrook, Dublin 4
Running time	65-75 minutes
Distributor	RTÉ
Release
Original network	RTÉ One
Original release	25 October 1986 – 18 December 1999

Saturday Live is a televised talk show hosted by various guest presenters and broadcast live on Saturday nights. The show was broadcast during the autumn-spring season (October - April) and was created to fill the vacant Saturday night slot after the departure of The Late Late Show from Saturday to Friday nights. It was first broadcast on RTÉ One on Saturday 25 October 1986. Saturday Live featured guest interviews and live music from guest music groups and featured a mix of serious discussion and light chat aimed at a younger audience than its main rival, The Late Late Show. The original programme ended on 11 April 1988.

Saturday Live had a series of guest presenters, including the leader of Fine Gael Alan Dukes, Rhonda Paisley (daughter of the Rev. Ian Paisley), soccer pundit Eamon Dunphy, industrialist Tiede Herrema and current affairs broadcaster Pat Kenny, whose own first attempt at a chat show, The Pat Kenny Show had failed. Kenny proved such a success in the Saturday Live show that he was subsequently given his own chat show under the name Kenny Live.

Following Kenny's take over of The Late Late Show in 1999 and the ending of Kenny Live the Saturday Live formula was revived to fill the vacant Saturday night slot yet again. The second coming of the show proved unpopular and was ended after only one series.