Was it for this that Ray fought off numerous assaults from Ted? Was it for this that we all screamed at our TVs when Podge and Rodge donned another disguise and got up to all sorts of sinister mischief? Was it for this that two aliens and their pet alien dog came down from the planet Zog to make all our lives better?

Last night RTÉ announced the sad news that it will begin to outsource all of it's young people's programming to independent production companies from the end of this year.

In a statement, the national broadcaster said:

"Recognising the challenging financial environment, and so as to achieve stronger efficiencies and value for money, RTÉ is to make changes to how it produces young people’s programmes.

"After an examination of all output, a decision has been made to commission all young people’s programmes from the independent sector, enabling RTÉ to meet its statutory committed spend in the sector and reducing operating costs internally. RTÉ is not reducing its commitment to younger peoples programmes, nor it's spend."

The move applies to all young people's programming across RTÉ2 and RTÉjr, and comes as a shock to all the presenters and crew who've come through the doors of RTÉ and got their beginnings on the likes of Dempsey's Den, The Den and TRTÉ, and generations of Irish people who grew up with Zig, Zag, Dustin, Soky, Snotser and co.

Dustin the Turkey put it perfectly.

Via Independent.ie