The Podge and Rodge Show

The Podge and Rodge Show (also formerly known as The Podge and Rodge Show with Lucy Kennedy) is an Irish chat show, broadcast and produced by RTÉ, featuring the popular Podge and Rodge as hosts. For the first three seasons they were joined by Lucy Kennedy as a co-host but in the fourth season will be joined by guest hosts including Michelle Heaton. The programme airs every Monday and Tuesday at 22:50 on RTÉ Two from February to April and from October to December with a hiatus during the summer months. The fourth season began on 20 October 2008.

The Podge and Rodge Show
RTÉ promotional picture
Genre	Comedic talk show
Created by	Ciaran Morrison Mick O'Hara
Developed by	Ciaran Morrison Mick O'Hara
Starring	Lucy Kennedy Ciaran Morrison Mick O'Hara
Country of origin	Irland
Original languages	English, Irish
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	107 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Jim Jennings
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Original release
Network	RTÉ Two
Release	6 February, 2006 – Present
Related
The Den

The show takes place in the fictional setting of Ballydung Manor, the brothers' home in the village of Ballydung in County Ring. As well as celebrity interviews of a humorous nature it also features other comic elements such as quizzes, reviews, news, music and talent contests as well as racenights involving amongst other entities hamsters in mazes, sheep shearing and tractors. During early episodes, with the credits rolling, it was common for the two to tell viewers to direct their complaints elsewhere, e.g. RTÉ or The Joe Duffy Show. The programme's popularity has even affected the Irish Singles Chart, with The Saw Doctors reaching #1 on 17 October 2008 with the song "About You Now", first performed on The Podge and Rodge Show as a dare during the "Rock N' Roulette" feature of series three.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Podge and Rodge Show episodes

First series

While the pilot episode, An Audience with Podge and Rodge, was first broadcast on RTÉ on St. Stephen's Day in 2005, the series did not begin in earnest until 6 February 2006.

A feature introduced in the first series was Rodge's Wrister Wreview. It involved various items, such as books, magazines and television shows receiving the expert opinion of Rodge. The items were rated on the Wrister Scale which was displayed on the screen.

Never to be accused of ignoring current affairs, the duo aired their views on the naked calendar craze that was sweeping the world and even did their bit to help out when Ireland was faced by fears of a bird-flu pandemic; they decided to 'kill' The Late Late Show owl. After spending much time taking aim, they eventually shot him to pieces. Also in current affairs they found time to discuss the SSIAs, taking digs at Eddie Hobbs, Pat Kenny and The Late Late Show along the way.

Second Series

The second series was broken into two halves, the first beginning on October 16 2006 and running until December 31 2006. After a month's break the second series continued on February 5 2007 and ran until April 10 2007.

A feature that first appeared in this series was Ballydung Idol which featured spoofs of famous songs. When the performance had reached a sufficient level of "crapiness" a fart sound erupted to halt proceedings. The level of "crap" was measured on a Crapometer which Richie Kavanagh won with one minute and fifty-five seconds.

Winning Streak (a parody on the RTÉ produced gameshow of the same name) invited streakers to film their exploits and send them into the show with extra points being awarded for things such as more daylight and public streaking.

Miss Ballydung was a beauty contest of sorts; a cross between Miss World and The Rose of Tralee. It featured such beauties as Miss Muck, Miss Poledance Fitness and Miss Muff. Queen of the Land bottle-fed a lamb as Podge and Rodge made references to its imminent digestion by a hungry human. The final was held on the Monday 18 December 2006 episode, judged by The Rose of Tralee Catherine Feeney as well as that evening's guests Brendan Bowyer and Des Bishop. The winner was Miss Poledance Fitness (from Newry).

Model Andrea Roche appeared on the show amidst media speculation on an interview she gave when she was competing in the Miss World competition in the Seychelles in 1997.

Podge and Rodge hosted a special show from Ballydung Manor on December 19, entitled A Frightmare Before Christmas. It celebrated Christmas from their perspective, a reality where none of the intended guests turned up, and imaginary scenarios where the worst possible guests did. In reality Podge and Rodge and Lucy were left in the darkness of Ballydung Manor as the thunder raged outside, imagining their nightmare guests.

Podge and Rodge rang in 2007 on December 31 in a special programme lasting over forty minutes instead of the usual thirty-minute format. The New Year's Eve show was called Bogmanay (a play on Hogmanay). It was broadcast on RTÉ Two from 11.30p.m. The boys dressed up for the occasion, presenting the show in white shirts, black jackets and bowties. The audience wore party hats.

The second series continued on February 5 2007 after a month hiatus with a new feature Gifted or Afflicted and a new celebrity game; The Sheep Shagger Challenge in which Bernie the Sheep is ridden by a celebrity each week. Another new segment added was ShamRock, which has included tribute acts to some of the world's best known bands

Third series

The third series began on October 15 2007. A new feature will be "Ballydung's Grot Talent", which will see auditioning of freaks take place over nine weeks with judges Lucy Kennedy and Brendan Kilkenny travelling to almost 32 counties, beginning with Port Laoise (with guest judge Declan Nerney). Lucy Kennedy described it as "You're A Star gone wrong" on Ray D'Arcy's radio show on Today FM on Wednesday September 26. After a hiatus following the Bogmanay New Year's Eve Special, the third series continued on February 4 2008 twice weekly for a further ten weeks. The 100th Episode was celebrated on March 24 2008. Series 3 ended with two special programmes. A Jack Charlton Special on April 14th and on Tuesday April 15th the '2008 Golden Loggies Awards' which was a 'best of' show, featuring the best of the guests from Series 3.

Fourth series

The fourth series began on 20 October 2008. For the first time Lucy Kennedy does not feature as co-host. Instead each week a female celebrity will guest present until they find a replacement. Kicking off the series was Michelle Heaton who joined the Ballydung brothers for the first two shows. The second week sees Pamela Flood as guest presenter.

Reception

The show was initially a ratings success, regularly getting over 400,000 viewers a show during the first season, including 440,000 for the week beginning April 9, 2006 and peaking at almost 450,000 (40% of those watching television at this time) for the season finale on May 2. At this time it tended to have more viewers than Desperate Housewives and Lost, both of which are also shown on RTÉ Two. It was also catching up on RTÉ's flagship chat show — The Late Late Show — which airs on Friday nights on RTÉ One, and has approximately half a million viewers. However, there was a drop in viewership in later seasons, but the show continues to be the top rated home produced show on RTÉ Two.

Following on from the success of their show, Podge and Rodge were asked to appear in a number of television ads for RTÉ which encouraged viewers to pay their television licences. They were also featured in a radio ad for Will Leahy's The Saturday Show on 2fm, in which they described the show as better than "shit on a stick". Another spin-off saw them interviewing arch-nemesis Pat Kenny for the People in Need Telethon whilst around the same time a book, The Ballydung Bible, was released.

Criticism

At the beginning of the third series, John Boland of the Irish Independent asserted that the show was declining in quality:

"Podge and Rodge seemed like the standard bearers of a new, confident comedy generation, which makes it all the more depressing to look at what's happened to them since they entered the mainstream with their twice-weekly show on RTE2. And make no mistake: the bad language and crude sexual humour may have blown the top off the taste barometer, but The Podge & Rodge Show, now in its third series, is as mainstream as Killinaskully."

DVDs

DVD Name	Release Date	Bonus Material
The Podge & Rodge Show - The Best of Series One	November 3 2006	Unseen pilot interview with sports presenter George Hamilton,Even More Johnny Vegas ,More Keith Duffy, Ainezone, Ballydung Weather with Martin King,Pole Dancing Competition.
The Podge & Rodge Show - The Cream of Series Two	November 2 2007	Miss Ballydung Pageant, Ballydung Idol, Sex Toy Show with Margo, A Load of Pointless Games, Photo album, Hidden Easter Eggs.

Awards

• The Podge and Rodge Show won the TVNow award for "Favourite Television Programme" in 2006.
• The Podge and Rodge Show won the TVNow award for the second year in a row for "Favourite Television Programme" in 2007.
• The Podge and Rodge Show was nominated for two IFTAs in 2007.
  • Lucy Kennedy was nominated for the BSE/IFB & NIFTC Breakthrough Talent Award for her role as co-host.
  • The show itself was nominated in the Entertainment category.
• The Podge and Rodge Show was nominated for its second IFTA and won the 'Best Entertainment show' category in 2008.

External links

• Official site
• Template:Myspace