We bring these figures to you, not for a national outcry, but more as a token piece of info you will take with you for the weekend, aren't we as good? So it's been reported today that RTE spent €332,000 on the guests and food and drink for five flagship programmes in 2013.
Is it a huge amount of money? Yes, but come on, we can hardly moan about it considering half the nation is always complaining about what terrible guests we have on our chat shows as opposed to the likes of Graham Norton (which is probably the most unreasonable comparison that could ever be made, entirely different budgets). Imagine how bad it would be if any less was spent? Nobody would be able to have a minutes peace in the RTE canteen without being pulled out by Ryan or Brendan for a quick chat.
Interestingly, Brendan O'Connor's show spent more on guests and the like in 2013, coming in at a figure of €118,615 as opposed to The Late Late Show's €96,681. While Miriam O'Callaghan's summer show last year came in at €15,531.
While the exact figures for each individual guest can not be given, these stats were released under the Freedom of Information Act. Included in this sum is the amount spent on food and drink for all shows which came to €85,280, but sure you couldn't see anybody without a drink in their hand now could you?
So yeah, a lot of money but sure where else are we going to see Linda Martin and your man from Aslan almost getting into a scrap? And just think of all the poor Irish animals that would never have had their TV debut if it wasn't for the Late Late, nor would we have had mindbogglingly awkward interviews by Brendan O'Connor with the likes of Pussy Riot.
The country would be a worse off place guys, a worse off place.*
*Probably wouldn't be a worse off place.
