2018 in Irish television

The following is a list of events relating to television in Ireland from 2018.

List of years in Irish television (table)
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Events

January

• 8 January – Micko airs on RTÉ One.^[1]
• 23 January – Saorview announces the launch of Free TV, a channel designed to promote the launch of its premium service Saorview Connect.^[2]

February

• 1 February – Joanne Cantwell is named as the new presenter of The Sunday Game following popular studio host Michael Lyster's retirement from RTÉ at the end of the 2018 GAA season.^[3]
• 3 February – Ireland's Got Talent makes its debut on TV3.

March

• 24 March – RDC win the first series of Ireland's Got Talent.
• 26 March – Jake Carter and dance partner Karen Byrne win the second series of Dancing with the Stars.

April

• 28 April – Reports emerge that RTÉ has asked the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment for permission to reduce the Aertel teletext service on the grounds that it has been superseded by more recent technology.^[4] For legal reasons, RTE has to get permission from the Minister to make significant changes to Aertel.^[4]

May

• 7 May – RTÉ announce plans for a timeshift channel for RTÉ2.^[5]

June

• 6 June – Ireland's Got Talent will make its UK television debut on 5Star.^[6]

July

• 1 July – ITV closes UTV's Havelock House studios and UTV begins broadcasting from a new broadcast centre at City Quays 2 in the Belfast Harbour Estate.^[7]

August

• 30 August – TV3 is rebranded as Virgin Media One, while its sister channels 3e and be3 become Virgin Media Two and Three respectively. A fourth pay TV sports channel, Virgin Media Sport, launches on the Virgin Media platform.^[8]

September

• 1 September – To coincide with the rebranding of TV3 to Virgin Media One, the Saturday AM and Sunday AM breakfast programmes are renamed as "Weekend AM".^[9]
• 18 September – Launch of Virgin Media Sport.^{[10][11][12][13]}
• 28 September – Players of the Faithful airs on RTÉ One.^[14]

October

• 12 October – The Late Late Show is broadcast live from Central Hall Westminster in London, the first time the programme has broadcast from the United Kingdom since 1980.^[15][16]
• 30 October – Jennifer Zamparelli is announced as the new co-host of the Irish version of Dancing with the Stars alongside Nicky Byrne.^[17]

November

• 3 November – RTÉ2 celebrates its 40th anniversary and begins to offer vintage clips of shows from RTÉ2 on the RTÉ archives website.^[18]
• 29 November – BBC Two Northern Ireland starts broadcasting in HD.^[19]
• 30 November – The Late Late Toy Show is livestreamed on RTÉ Player, where anyone anywhere in the world can watch live as it is not Geo-blocked.^[20] It is also broadcast on RTÉ One, and goes on to become the most watched programmes on Irish television in 2018.^[21]

December

• 15 December – Rugby union player Johnny Sexton is named the 2018 RTÉ Sports Person of the Year.^[22]
• 16 December – The Coney family from County Tyrone, coached by Anna Geary, win season six of Ireland's Fittest Family, making Geary the first coach to win twice.^[23]
• 31 December – Norma Sheahan and her family win the 2018 Christmas celebrity special of Ireland's Fittest Family, and €10,000 for their charity of choice.^[24]

Debuts

• 3 February – Ireland's Got Talent on TV3
• 8 February – The Young Offenders on RTÉ2
• 27 August – Killing Eve on RTÉ2
• 10 October – Finding Joy on RTÉ1
• 26 November – Death and Nightingales on RTÉ1

Ongoing television programmes

1960s

• RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock (1961–present)
• RTÉ News: Six One (1962–present)
• The Late Late Show (1962–present)

1970s

• The Late Late Toy Show (1975–present)
• The Sunday Game (1979–present)

1980s

• Fair City (1989–present)
• RTÉ News: One O'Clock (1989–present)

1990s

• Would You Believe (1990s–present)
• Winning Streak (1990–present)
• Prime Time (1992–present)
• Nuacht RTÉ (1995–present)
• Nuacht TG4 (1996–present)
• Ros na Rún (1996–present)
• TV3 News (1998–present)
• Ireland AM (1999–present)
• Telly Bingo (1999–present)

2000s

• Nationwide (2000–present)
• TV3 News at 5.30 (2001–present) – now known as the 5.30
• Against the Head (2003–present)
• news2day (2003–present)
• Other Voices (2003–present)
• Saturday Night with Miriam (2005–present)
• The Week in Politics (2006–present)
• Xposé (2007–2019)
• At Your Service (2008–present)
• Operation Transformation (2008–present)
• 3e News (2009–present)
• Dragons' Den (2009–present)
• Two Tube (2009–present)

2010s

• Jack Taylor (2010–present)
• Mrs. Brown's Boys (2011–present)
• MasterChef Ireland (2011–present)
• Irish Pictorial Weekly (2012–present)
• Today (2012–present)
• The Works (2012–present)
• Deception (2013–present)
• Celebrity MasterChef Ireland (2013–present)
• Second Captains Live (2013–present)
• Claire Byrne Live (2015–present)
• The Restaurant (2015–present)
• Red Rock (2015–present)
• TV3 News at 8 (2015–present)
• Ploughing Live (2015–present)
• First Dates (2016–present)
• Dancing with the Stars (2017–present)
• The Tommy Tiernan Show (2017–present)
• Striking Out (2017–present)

Ending this year

Dolores O'Riordan 8th January

See also

• 2018 in Ireland

References

1. "Micko". Retrieved 17 December 2023.
2. "Saorview – News – Saorview launches the world's first free shopping channel – Free TV. And it's free-ly good". www.saorview.ie. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
3. "RTÉ announce Joanne Cantwell as The Sunday Game's new presenter". The 42. 1 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
4. "Hundreds of thousands still use it – but RTÉ has asked Minister if it can reduce Aertel service". TheJournal.ie. 28 April 2018. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
5. Slattery, Laura (7 May 2018). "RTÉ plans plus-one channel for RTÉ2". The Irish Times. The Irish Times Trust. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
6. Elms, John (6 June 2018). "5Star to show Ireland's Got Talent". C21 Media. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
7. UTV to relocate from Belfast's Havelock House, bbc.co.uk, 14 October 2016
8. "TV3 is officially changing its name – to Virgin Media One". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
9. TV3 reels in the years as it becomes Virgin Media One, Irish Times, 23 August 2018
10. Staff, Fora (28 June 2018). "Virgin Media to launch brand new Irish sports channel as part of TV3 rebrand".
11. "Virgin Media Sport Takes On Rival RTE With Exclusive Match Deals". 2 July 2018.
12. "TV3 aims to score with new ad model on sports channel – Independent.ie". July 2018.
13. "Broadband, TV & Phone Bundles in Ireland – Virgin Media Ireland". www.virginmedia.ie. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
14. "Players of the Faithful". Retrieved 17 December 2023.
15. "Tubridy excited and nervous ahead of London Late Late". RTÉ News. RTÉ. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
16. "London Late Late Shows". RTÉ Archives. RTÉ. 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
17. "Jennifer Zamparelli announced as the new co-host for Dancing with the Stars". The Journal. 30 October 2018. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
18. "RTÉ2 Celebrates 40th Anniversary". irishnews.com. 3 November 2018.
19. "BBC confirms arrangements for new HD channels". Retrieved 17 December 2023.
20. "Here's how you can watch the Toy Show from anywhere in the world". Daily Edge. 30 November 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
21. "Grand Slam decider the most-watched sporting event on Irish TV in 2018". The 42. 10 January 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
22. "Johnny Sexton is the RTÉ Sportsperson of the Year". RTÉ News. RTÉ. 15 December 2018. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
23. "First family team from Tyrone named Ireland's Fittest Family". 17 December 2018.
24. "Norma Sheahan wins Ireland's Fittest Family". Cork ARC Cancer Support House. Retrieved 7 April 2019.

External links

• List of 2018 Irish television series at IMDb