Ray D’Arcy could reportedly lose his Saturday night slot to one of Ireland’s top comedians

There could soon be a big shake-up in RTÉ's Saturday night schedule.

Tommy Tiernan may be poised to permanently take over Ray D'Arcy's weekend TV slot, it's been reported. Tommy will bring his chat show to Saturday nights for an eight-week run from 4 May as Ray takes a break. The Tommy Tiernan Show has proven popular with viewers since it first launched at the beginning of 2017. Now an RTÉ source has revealed that if Tommy's show goes down well in the new time slot, he may hold onto it for good. The broadcaster wants Ray to improve his ratings or face a big change.

"Ray is coming back because there simply isn't enough time for RTÉ to come up with a replacement Saturday chat show," the insider told The Irish Sun. "But he's only ­guaranteed in the slot until Christmas. If the show doesn't turn around, he could be disappearing off screen even earlier in his run to make way for Tommy in the same slot. "RTÉ wouldn't be axing Ray’s show, instead they will be segmenting it and bringing in Tommy for some of the run. But a lot will depend on how Tommy gets on in his new eight-week series."

The publication is reporting that Ray is guaranteed a certain amount of TV time as part of his contract with RTÉ. RTÉ has played down the claims, saying that Ray will be back on screens in September for his usual run and that it will be "business as usual".