According to the papers, the fabric of Irish television is crumbling asunder before our very eyes.
Firstly, in some good news, RTE's Seoige is being axed. According to The Sun: "It was a toss-up as to whether the Seoiges' show would get the chop or Blathnaid Ni Chofaigh's The Afternoon Show, which will now be kept on for another season." Great. That's Sheana Keane shafted, so.
It's not all doom and gloom for one of the Seoige's, obviously Grainne, who's due to start working on some "major peak time projects" with RTE next season. You might even say "Prime Time" projects... that'll free of a bit of time for Miriam's presumed venture into Pat's Friday night slot. We are getting the female version of the plank, avec baps. Super.
Things aren't looking so hot for Grainne's younger sister, Sile, who "took over" from Joe O'Shea at the beginning of this current season. RTE's new director of programmes, Steve Carson, was a little more vague regarding her position within Montrose: "I'm sure we'll also be working with Sile again in the near future." Somewhere, Joe O'Shea and Sile's recent ex-husband are high-fiving each other furiously.
Meanwhile, over on TV3, Lorraine Keane announced yesterday that she's leaving Xpose to: "take on new challenges and spend more time with my young family." This doesn't come as a surprise to us considering - when we talked to her last week - she mainly talked about her two little girls, Emelia and Romy.
According to "a source" talking to The Star: "Lorraine told TV3 she wasn't happy with the format changes and basically she ws told 'take it or leave it'... TV3 didn't expect her to leave it but she decided after 11 years, she had enough. They never actually expected her to go and there was no intention to push her." Meanwhile, one of Lorraine's friends said: "It's a surprise, but I know there's a lot of tension and a clash of personalities on the show." This isn't jaw dropping news either; although it might've been a week ago. Last Thursday, when entertainment.ie sloped on in to the Xpose girls' changing room to have a nose (largely under the ruse to talk about fake tan), my conversation with a few of the ladies came to an abrupt halt when I blurted Lorraine had just mentioned she got a wardrobe allowance. Eeeeeeeep *backs out of changing room, quietly*
Karen Coster is the bookie's favourite to take over as anchor, with Glenda second in line. Sybil Mulcaaaheeeeey confirmed a couple of weeks ago that she's leaving Xpose to appear on her own mid-morning segment. Yep, between Ireland AM and the viewing apocalypse that is Midday, we'll be treated to Sybil roaming the corner of one of the former's studios. A bit like GMTV's Lorraine 'GROWLEEEERRGH' Kelly, if you will. Ah well, at least we're not paying for it...