Premier Soccer Saturday
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| Premier Soccer Saturday | |
| Format | Sport |
|---|---|
| Starring | Bill O'Herlihy Peter Collins Darragh Maloney |
| Country of origin |  Ireland |
| No. of seasons | 10 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | RTÉ One |
| Original run | September 1998 (as The Premiership) – Present |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
Premier Soccer Saturday (formerly The Premiership) is RTÉ's principal soccer programme. It is broadcast on RTÉ Two every Saturday evening between 19:30 and 21:00 and occasionally on Sunday (when there is an important game played that day) during the English league soccer season, showing highlights of Premier League football matches. The current theme tune for the show is a cover of the Republica song, "Bloke". When the show is aired on a day other than Saturday, it uses the appropiately customised title (e.g. Premier Soccer Sunday).
Contents |
[edit] History
It was first broadcast in September 1998 as The Premiership. Between August 2004 and May 2007, RTÉ also had the broadcasting rights to 15 live Premier League matches on Saturday afternoons (kick off: 15:00). These programmes were called Premiership Live. Setanta obtained exclusive rights to the games from the 2007-08 season.
[edit] Presenters
It is currently presented on a rotational basis between Bill O'Herlihy, Peter Collins and Darragh Maloney. O'Herlihy used to be the sole presenter of the program but from the 2006-07 season, decided to scale back his workload in light of his advancing years in an effort to grow old gracefully,[citation needed] although he still presents the UEFA Champions League and international match coverage for the station.
[edit] Analysts
Regular pundits that feature on the show to make comments about the games, include Eamon Dunphy, Johnny Giles, Ray Houghton, Trevor Steven, Kenny Cunningham, Ronnie Whelan and Graeme Souness. The then Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern famously made an appearance on the show in 2001, providing analysis on a Manchester United game, whom he is a life long supporter of.
[edit] Commentators
Commentary on the games are provided by, amongst others, George Hamilton, Stephen Alkin, Darragh Maloney, Ger Canning, Adrian Eames, Andrew O'Connor, Gabriel Egan, Joanne Cantwell, Siobhán Madigan and Jimmy Magee.
