If anyone can inject life, wit and general telly magic into a talent format, it is surely Jamelia, the popstar turned actress and television presenter, who will be popping up on The Voice of Ireland as a coach/mentor/ judge in the new year.
And there was more good news for the RTÉ format this week as it announced that it has re-signed Volkswagen as a sponsor for the sophomore season.
Last year, it was Volkswagen’s new city car, the Volkswagen up!, which featured in the stings for the live show stage of the contest, while this year it’s the turn of the seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf.
More importantly for Montrose, this time around the deal has been done before the show launches in January, rather than in the middle of the run.
Even without the Brummie charms of Jamelia (who replaces Brian Kennedy), The Voice of Ireland’s debut series was successful in shaking off any nascent signs of audience fatigue with talent formats, attracting average audiences of almost 600,000 to RTÉ One on Sunday nights.
Sponsorship
The car industry has become a regular target for RTÉ’s sponsorship-seekers of late, with Peugeot recently sponsoring RTE’s six-part musical education of celebrities, Instrumental, while The Movie Show featured the Ford Fiesta as part of advertiser-funded programming deal.
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