Traditionally aired on the last Friday of November, This year’s Late Late Toy Show has been moved, and tonight’s the night. Will it be worth the wait? Read on to discover the all-important theme and what’s in store as Patrick Kielty returns for his second year as host.

The Late Late Toy Show kicks off on RTÉ One at 9.35 pm and runs until 11.55 pm or so. It will be broadcast worldwide on RTÉ Player and can also be watched on catch-up on RTÉ Player. Audio description will be available for the repeats at 3.05 pm on Sunday and at 12.05 am on Tuesday (last thing on Monday night), and afterwards on RTÉ Player. The programme will be audio-described by Clara Murray and Bemi Stack. Following last year’s Elf-inspired show, the 2024 edition will transport viewers to the world of Kevin McCallister with a Home Alone theme. Providing some nineties nostalgia for the big kids among us, the set will feature Kevin’s kitchen, his sitting room, and treehouse – not forgetting brother Buzz’s bedroom. This year’s Toy Show takes place under a slew of weather warnings, with heavy rain, high winds, and thunder. Met Éireann said impacts of the storm could include fallen trees, damage to power lines, and difficult travelling conditions. But the show must go on, according to Mr Kielty. He said: ‘It’ll take a fair bit of weather to stop the Toy Show. I mean, nothing stops the Toy Show. I don’t think so. Come hell, high water, or whatever weather warning, at 9.30 pm we’re going to be going.’

A Whirlwind of Performances and a County Parade

The Toy Show wouldn’t be the Toy Show without a troop of all-singing, all-dancing munchkins. RTÉ says 250 toy testers and performers will take part on Friday – a leap up from last year’s 170 – so you can be sure to enjoy a fine array of tunes and visual spectacles throughout the night. Viewers can anticipate a whirlwind trip to the glittering land of Oz as some Wicked-inspired performances are on the cards. In a first for the Late Late Toy Show, children from every county in Ireland will take to the studio floor for a Toy Show County Parade. Expect swirling, twirling, gymnastics, pageantry, and plenty of county pride. Sarah-Jane Regan and Jason Maguire will present The Late Late Toy Show live with Irish sign language on the RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player, working with hearing interpreters Ciara Grant and Lisa Harvey-Coleman. The accessibility has come on leaps and bounds in recent years with Sarah-Jane saying: “When I was growing up and watching TV, I always felt out of the loop. I have a hearing brother and he would laugh and I would look at him and go, ‘What are you laughing at?’ I would be watching The Toy Show but I had no idea what was going on. I was just watching the visual, I was looking at the toys, I was looking at the stage. I was nearly creating my own stories in my head of what was happening. But now we have ISL interpreters we realise what we were missing, for years. It’s amazing for both of us now to provide that magic to deaf children who are watching us. No one is missing out, they’re not missing the jokes, they’re laughing with their hearing siblings, deaf parents with hearing children, deaf families, deaf friends. They’re all laughing at the same time together. The Late Late Toy Show with ISL access has given us that opportunity to all be together.”

Toys, Books, and Musical Moments

Among the playthings to marvel over and inevitably add to the Christmas shopping list this year will be the BeyBlade X Xtreme Battle Set and Hot Wheels Monster Truck Epic Loop Bundle. For those who gravitate towards something more on the soft and cuddly side, there’s the FurReal Peanut the Playful Monkey and Real FX Disney Stitch Puppet Interactive Toy. Some home-grown toys will also be featured, including Stomp Rockets and an Irish bracelet-weaving set. Bookworms can look forward to the show’s much-loved book review segment which will see mythologies and histories to the fore. The Dictionary Story by Oliver Jeffers, Nina Peanut: Mega Mystery Solver by Sarah Bowie, and The Story of Irish Rugby by Gerard Siggins are among the books being highlighted later. Last year’s Late Late Toy show was RTÉ’s most-watched programme of 2023, with over 1.7 million viewers. It was also viewed on the RTÉ Player more than 550,000 times in 147 countries.

The Enduring Legacy of the Toy Show

The first Late Late Toy Show aired in 1975 when it was a half-hour segment presented by Gay Byrne to help parents stumped as to what Santa should bring to their kids for Christmas, while the kids themselves were tucked up in bed. Since then, it has grown into one of the biggest dates in Irish broadcasting, with 1.8 million tuning in live in 2021 – a staggering 81 per cent of people watching at the time, and a big jump even over 2020, when 1.5 million people, or 59 per cent of the available audience, tuned in live. Last year, 1.7 million watched Patrick Kielty’s hosting debut over the Toy Show weekend. In 2023, a global audience from 158 countries tuned in to watch the Toy Show on RTÉ Player, with viewers from New York, Berlin, Sydney, Madrid, Toronto, and more. Now approaching its 50th anniversary, Kielty believes having the kids in charge is the secret to the Toy Show’s longevity. “The kids are what make it different every year. You could do this Toy Show with the exact same toys that Gay [Byrne] put on the very first Toy Show, and change the kids every year, and you’re going to have a completely different show – it’s just the way they interact, no two kids are the same,” he said. “Their opinions aren’t the same. They’ll be really honest and they’ll tell you the truth about how they feel about stuff. I think that’s how the Toy Show’s endured, because you have a new generation of kids every time coming in, and experiencing it in a different way.”

A Night of Family Fun and Fundraising

This year’s theme is based on the classic Christmas film Home Alone, which Mr Kielty said is the ‘perfect setting for our kids’. He added: ‘We managed to squeeze the entire Home Alone house into our set. Basically any kid that has walked in to rehearse this year has just come round the corner and done the exact same thing which I did when I saw it. I thought “no way, no way” and their mouths are on the floor.’ RTÉ said the set will ‘take the big kids among us back in time to Kevin’s kitchen, his sitting room, the treehouse and not forgetting Buzz’s bedroom. The Late Late Toy Show will be giving Nineties’ nostalgia.’ For the first time, children from all 32 counties in Ireland will feature. Host Kielty, from Dundrum, Co. Down, is the fourth-ever Toy Show presenter, after taking the reins from Ryan Tubridy last year. Mr Tubridy had a 13-year stint, with Gay Byrne and Pat Kenny the only other hosts since it first aired in 1975. Kielty said: ‘The kids are in charge and all planning goes out of the window. ‘There’s absolutely no prep. There’s no amount of looking in the mirror tomorrow, pretending I got this. It’s like you’re really just bluffing yourself. You just have to go out there and just see where it takes you.’ The Late Late Toy Show airs tonight at 9.35 pm on RTÉ One and on the RTÉ Player. The Toy Show Appeal, a fundraising initiative that coincides with the broadcast, will also be a feature. “I think one of the most amazing things about the Toy Show is that we’ve raised €21 million in the appeal [in five years],” Kielty said. “That’s really at the heart of it.” The Toy Show really is for everyone. No matter what age you are, no matter who you are. And in recent years, RTÉ has taken strides to make the show even more inclusive with both Irish Sign Language interpreters and Audio Description interpreters helping deaf and blind children enjoy the Toy Show like everyone else. Matilda’s Alisha Weir, Irish rugby players Bundee Aki and Peter O’Mahony made appearances on the show in 2023. Glancing back to 2021, Ed Sheeran and Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington graced our screens – so whoever will turn up tonight is anyone’s guess.