The world's longest-running chat show.
Decades before Oprah Winfrey was giving surprise (promotional) gifts to all of her studio audiences "you get a.., you get a..., you get a...!", Gay Byrne would announce, after certain chats, or backdoor product placement features, that "There's one for everybody in the audience!", leading to squeals of delight from the studio audience getting some unexpected freebie(s). Even after 60 years, it has become one of the shows most cliched expected "unexpected" surprises, but unironically has become a fondly loved "cult classic" moment when its said.
Also, the show is now broadcast completely live from 9.30pm on Friday nights, during Autumn and Winter. Traditionally, its been a long standing scheduling "tradition", that although the show is traditionally apx 2 hours long, its allowed to be open ended, especially during certain current affair debates and tribute shows. During original host Gay Byrne's retirement tribute show, it ran live for 4 hours(!). The format within each episode is a very flexible hybrid mash-up, of a tradition chat show (think "The Graham Norton Show" with all the guests together throughout the entire show), a "hot topic" current affairs audience debate show often with very intense interactions, a tribute show, theme nights, live phone competitions, generally the show becomes like a daytime magazine show. Its traditionally been the top rated show whenever its on, which is why it usually has also been re-purposed as Eurosong (in which Ireland selects its Eurovision Song Contest Entry for that year), and the annual december Late Late Toy Show - which has been described as an infomercial, as its a curious feelgood hybrid of promoting the hot new Toys, Games, Gadgets and books, and a stage school end of year variety and talent show - the Toy Show is still broadcast live from 9.30pm on a friday night, with child participants, so it is notorious for multiple live tv "car crash" bloopers, and some very moving emotional intimate chats and surprises. A vast selection of clips are online, and the show is also streamed live globally, primarily for the diaspora.
Bare it mind, that when it started in 1962, it was on the only official Ireland-based tv channel the vast majority of the Republic of Ireland could get. Those in, and near the border to Northern Ireland, and on the east coast of the Republic could get signals from BBC TV Northern Ireland ITV's Ulster Television (aka UTV), and some of the BBC's west coast GB regions. Gay Byrne had worked in the UK for Granada and the BBC, so knew various programme styles. The Late Late Show was designed as a 2 hour hybrid show, which also featured very huge international guests. Often if a Hollywood star was shooting a film in Ireland, or doing the usual promotion tours, they'd be booked. As the tv audience in Ireland was relatively small compared to most obviously the UK and the USA, the chats were and still are, a lot more intimate, freeflowing and natural, unlike the relentless anecdote and promotion "interviews" some shows are.