The world's longest running television chat show is on its way to Limerick. The national broadcaster, RTE, has confirmed: "there is an edition of the Late Late Show in planning, which will come from Limerick."

The show, which regularly attracts over a million viewers, has been a fixture of the Friday night television schedules for almost half a century, often courting controversy.

Only twice in its long history has the Late Late Show been broadcast away from the RTE studios in Donnybrook. On both occasions the show came live from New York.

RTE's Joe Hoban said: "It will the first time the Late Late Show will be broadcast in Ireland at a location outside Dublin. I have no confirmed date yet."

Pat Kenny

It's understood the show, presented by RTE's top earner Pat Kenny, will be broadcast from Limerick in November but RTE would not confirm this.

Mr Hoban said: "It will be a general show with some Lmerick content."

The University Concert Hall is the likely venue for the broadcast as it has been successfully used by RTE in the past.

A series of Coulter and Company, presented by Phil Coulter, was recorded there during the summer of 2004 and the national song contest was broadcast from the same venue in the past.

The University Concert Hall was also used by RTE Lyric FM for a special radio programme to welcome in the new millennium.

With a capacity of more than 1,000 it's expected the audience will include a number of invited guests and it's likely that some tickets for the show will be made available to the general public.