TV3 has announced it is cancelling The Dunphy Show after only three months into the battle of the Friday night talk shows. It will be broadcast for the last time next Friday night.
The show failed to match the viewing figures for Pat Kenny's Late Late Show, Ireland's longest-running television programme.
However, the decision to end the TV3 show surprised observers throughout the media yesterday, including the show's sponsors, Esat BT.
A spokeswoman said they were "disappointed" by the decision. Esat put in place €500,000 sponsorship for the programme.
While the Dunphy show lagged well behind The Late Late Show in terms of viewer numbers, it managed to attract several high-profile guests, including Roy Keane, Alistair Campbell and Candace Bushnell.
Some critics, however, accused the show of being too preoccupied with sport and politics. Another difficulty faced by Irish talk shows is the competition for high-profile international guests. Moreover, the talk show is a dying format in many parts of the television industry elsewhere in the world.
While the war of words between broadcasters Dunphy and Kenny will now cease, their two employers were trading blows last night.
TV3 said the enormous licence fee awarded to RTÉ last year was having a "massive negative impact" on investments in Irish programming, such as The Dunphy Show. RTÉ reacted angrily to this and other TV3 statements concerning the licence fee. "It is nonsense to suggest that the licence fee increase was used to target any possible success of The Dunphy Show."
Eamon Dunphy was not available for comment at his home in Ranelagh last night.
But in a statement, he said: "Over 300,000 people watched the show every weekend. I would particularly like to thank our viewers. I was privileged to work with a brilliant team, all of whom I'm certain will go on to enjoy successful careers in the business."
The precise reasons for dropping the TV3 show were not made clear, although the station denied viewing figures were the reason.
The executive producer, Ms Jane Gogan, who is also Mr Dunphy's partner, said previously that the team behind the show were particularly satisfied with the number of younger viewers tuning in. However, this was not sufficient to keep it on air. TV3 strongly denied a report that its British shareholder Granada/Carlton had been instrumental in the decision to end the programme.
Last night's Dunphy Show was prerecorded because its usual venue, the Helix at DCU, was not available.