The Late Late Show Valentine's Special took place on Friday night and can either be considered a rip-roaring success, a cringefest of the highest order or a "down with that sort of thing" affair - depending on who you're talking to.

Over half a million watched on Friday as Ryan had 200 "single and salivating" young ones take over the Late Late Show audience, while there was also a performance by Linda Martin and Al Porter singing 1981’s Dead Ringer for Love, the obligatory Blind Date segment, Dickie Rock sang ‘That’s Amore', and even last year's hero, the 'exotic' Deano returned. Oh and Tubs gave out hampers of lubricant and condoms.

RTE have said that the show received 176 calls and 120 emails "offering negative feedback about the programme", while the national broadcaster received 10 formal complaints.

However, host Ryan has hit back at the criticism on his morning radio show saying: "A lot of the headlines belie the success of that show. The show actually went down very well and it got 46 percent share which is enormous and which is a very, very good result indeed.

"Yes of course a number of people complained but actually bigger numbers watched it and seemed to enjoy it and the story that seems to have emerged from that programme is that - well to me - it's a tale of two Irelands. One Ireland is full of under 50s who thought it was a hoot and another Ireland full of over 50s who thought a little less of it in that sense."

He went on to say: "The bottom line is we do 37 Late Late shows in a season, one we go bananas and that was Friday night and it was great fun. In another we play with toys and we act like children and that goes down very well indeed. And another one coming up down the tracks will be the country show and some people will hate that because they don't like country and some people will love it because they love country.

"You'll lose a few heads watching some of them and you'll gain a few watching others and that's what it is."