Late Late Show viewers have shot up ahead of the Toy Show this coming Friday.

Friday's episode – featuring rising star Orén Kinlan and his dad, Love/Hate actor Laurence Kinlan – had an average audience of 468,000 on RTÉ One and RTÉ One +1 , with a 42 per cent share of the available TV audience.

This marked a massive improvement on last week's show, which saw 445,000 viewers tune in to watch guests including Limerick podcaster Blindboy, former spin doctor Alastair Campbell and author Dr Katriona O'Sullivan.

With new host Patrick Kielty now nine weeks in the driver's seat, Friday's figures were his best since week four's country special, which saw an impressive 548,000 viewers.

However this was still down 10,000 viewers on Ryan Tubridy's last country special in March this year.

READ MORE: Ryan Tubridy burst into tears when he heard what his daughters said about his big move to London

Friday's improved viewing figures are positive news for RTÉ, who will be banking on this weekend's Late Late Toy Show special to be a major ratings success.

However RTÉ Player streams have continued to trend downwards since the new season first began.

Friday’s episode had 30,000 streams on RTÉ Player from Friday to Sunday inclusive – the lowest of the series to date.

The Late Late Toy Show

The Late Late Toy Show is traditionally the most-watched TV programme in Ireland each year. Meaning the commercial breaks are some of the most expensive advertising slots on Irish television, making the show a highly lucrative one for RTÉ bosses.

The annual Toy Show special typically attracts well over one million viewers.

Ryan Tubridy's final Toy Show in November 2022 had an average audience of over 1.5 million, which marked 81 per cent of the available audience.

The previous year's show in 2021 had an even bigger audience of 1.7 million.

And, as one little girl puts it in the new advert for the Toy Show, it's "the official start of Christmas" and "a very big job". So let's hope Kielty is up for the challenge.

Announcing the annual call out for kids to appear as toy testers and performers on the show last September, Kielty said: “Many moons ago in Dundrum, Co Down this cheeky monkey had a Christmas jumper, a John Denver haircut and a dream. But never in his wildest did he think that one day, he’d host The Late Late Toy Show."

The Late Late Toy Show will air this Friday, 24 November at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.

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