“Which regular character in the TV series Scooby-Doo had the catchphrase ‘Zoinks’?” Claire Byrne asks early in Ireland’s Smartest (RTÉ One, Sunday, 7.30pm).
The answer is, of course, Shaggy. But the key word here is “Zoinks”, which might sum up many people’s reaction to the news that the former current-affairs presenter was returning to television to front a gameshow. What next? The 2 Johnnies hosting The Week in Politics? Marty Morrissey repeatedly shouting “Dong!” during the Angelus?
Byrne isn’t trying to reinvent herself on Ireland’s Smartest. She maintains her signature stern demeanour, which means a slight chill can seem to hang in the air even when she attempts some banter with the three contestants competing for a place in the semi-final of this loving homage to/shameless rip-off of the BBC’s Mastermind.
“Were quizzes and quiz questions part of your life, Carol?” Byrne asks, as though interrogating a junior minister about a controversial Private Members’ Bill. “Niamh ... our lab technician from Monaghan,” she adds a tad mirthlessly later on, “let’s play!”
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The format feels more complicated than it needs to be. In a dimly lit studio, the “quizzers”, as Byrne refers to them, first wrestle with general-knowledge questions against a timer. Take too long and they are presented with lower-scoring multiple-choice options.
This opening round is a three-way trivia scrum between Carol, a science teacher, Niamh, the lab technician, and Aiden, a farmer (and a previous finalist on Ireland’s Fittest Family). The teasers come thick and fast. In which century was Dante’s Divine Comedy completed? What band released the album Days Are Gone? Is there anything worth watching on Netflix?
Carol is eliminated at the first hurdle. Next is a face-off between Niamh and Aiden – who, with his bright yellow jumper, looks like he’s cosplaying as William Shatner in early Star Trek.
[ Claire Byrne seems stuck in neutral. Her RTÉ radio show needs a kick-startOpens in new window ]
Compared with other quizshows filmed against dark sets – Mastermind, to pick a random example – Ireland’s Smartest poses eminently answerable questions. (Niamh goes through after defeating Aiden in the final round.) But one imponderable the show doesn’t clear up has to do with Byrne’s future on television.
She would probably never claim that light entertainment is her forte. Equally, her gravitas is not necessarily the secret ingredient that Sunday-night prime time has been crying out for. Byrne’s current-affairs skills make her fantastic at grilling people in power and getting at simple truths behind seemingly complex controversies. To have her posing stumpers about Scooby-Doo feels like a waste.
There’s lots of speculation that she’s in with a shout to take over The Late Late Show. Ireland’s Smartest suggests that RTÉ should be thinking harder about what kind of vehicle would best suit her talents. It really is a no-brainer.
