RTÉ Television has announced the appointment of a new Commissioning Editor for Entertainment. Eddie Doyle, formally Assistant Commissioning Editor for Factual programmes, will take up his new position shortly.
“This is a key appointment for RTÉ Television,” says Noel Curran, Managing Director for RTÉ Television. “Eddie Doyle, our new Commissioning Editor for Entertainment, has a range of innovative ideas which will enable us to build on the recent successes of our Entertainment division."
RTÉ Television’s entertainment division commissions programmes from the independent sector as well as producing a range of in-house programmes. Top rating chat-shows ‘The Late Late Show’ and ‘Tubridy Tonight’ have been joined in recent years by a slate of entertainment programmes, from ‘Naked Camera’ and ‘Anonymous’ to ‘The Panel’.
Welcoming the appointment, Clare Duignan, Director of Programmes for RTÉ Television, said: “Eddie has a compelling creative vision and intuitive feel for popular television. We know that this will enable him to lead RTÉ’s Entertainment Department with the passion and flair needed to maintain its position as the premiere provider of Irish popular television entertainment programmes”.
Eddie Doyle has been Assistant Commissioner for Factual programmes at RTÉ Television since January 2006. During that period he managed a number of high-profile documentaries and factual entertainment programmes, including the ‘Future Shock’ programmes, ‘The Hospice,’ ‘So You Want to be Taoiseach?’, and a number of ‘Hidden History’ productions. Previously Executive Producer of ‘Prime Time Investigates’, Eddie oversaw the series from its inauguration in 2002, managing, among others, programmes on Leas Cross and the Garda Siochana. In 2001 his programme on the private rental sector won the Celtic Film Festival Jury Prize, and in the same year his programme on the Taliban (Afghanistan: Hostage Nation) won the ESB Broadcast Journalist of the Year Award. Prior to joining RTÉ Eddie worked in entertainment broadcasting in Britain for various companies including the BBC, Channel 4, Hat Trick and Trans World International.
Kevin Linehan, RTÉ Television’s current Commissioning Editor for Entertainment, is delighted to take up a new role as Executive Producer, Music. Eddie Doyle will now work alongside Assistant Commissioning Editor for Entertainment, Julian Vignoles.
