The Late Late Toy Show

Overview

The Late Late Toy Show—also known as The Toy Show— is an annual iconic and influential Irish national institution, an edition of the world's longest-running chat show, The Late Late Show broadcast on RTÉ One in Ireland each Friday evening. The Toy Show, as it is referred to, is broadcast in late November or early December each year. It has been an annual event since at least the 1970s. The show is regularly the most watched programme of the year on Irish television, with viewership figures rising steadily in recent years. The show, which consists of an adult-only studio audience dressed in traditional Christmas attire, does not accept advertisements which promote toys for its commercial breaks but, whilst new gadget-type toys regularly break down during the live show, being featured on the programme itself has been said to have a major boost to sales of a product over the following number of weeks in the build-up to the Christmas period.