Open House, RTE's flagship afternoon series, is due to finish on 8 April, with a special St Patrick's Day show with Brian Kennedy.
A spokeswoman at Tyrone Productions has said that they were aware that the contract for 'Open House' was being reviewed by RTE, and are naturally very disappointed that RTE has made the decision to not renew the contract - the show has a very loyal audience and has been running successfully for six years. Audience figures had been increasing, from an average 90,000 per show in 2002/2003, to 95,000 per show in 2003/2004 (all individual figures). With the move to a later slot for the present series, the producers were also aware of a shift to a younger audience, which was reflected in the younger fashion features. The success of Nevin McGuire's slot, including two cookery books published by RTE/Tyrone also aided in the audience increase and the show's success.
"Open House has been in our schedules for almost as long as it's predecessor, Live at Three', said RTÉ
Director of Programmes,TV, Clare Duignan. 'The end of this current contract provides us with an opportunity
to consider our afternoon programming and to ask whether or not we are serving our viewers as well as we
could. There are several suggestions under consideration for new approaches to this area of our
schedule. Tyrone Productions and the Open House team were made aware of this review some time ago. For RTÉ,
the most important thing is to meet the needs of our audience with distinctive Irish programming and that is what we hope to provide in the future.
The date of the final show is 8 April, and there will be a special St Patrick's Day show with Brian Kennedy.
