Irish presenter Ryan Tubridy is apparently being lined up to cover the Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2 over the summer while Graham Norton is off.
He hosts the 9-11am slot weekday's on national broadcaster RTE's popular music station 2FM as well as RTE Television's The Late Late Show.
The Irish Examiner reports that 37 year old Tubridy had been approached about presenting the Radio 2 show last summer to fill the gap between Jonathan Ross leaving and Graham Norton starting, but turned it down because of other commitments.
It's reported that a deal hasn't yet been done but that he's likely to take over from Norton in late July and continue to present his radio and TV shows in Ireland at the same time.
On air this morning, Ryan joked that the [link=http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/beeb-recruits-tubridy-151457.html]piece on the front page of today's Examiner[/link] felt like an obituary. He confirmed that he was in talks about work for the BBC but moved to reassure his listeners by saying "I'm here and I love it and I'm really happy and I won't be going anywhere today or tomorrow."
An RTE spokesman said "Ryan is looking forward to another season of The Late Late Show for 2011/2012 and continuing with his popular 2fm radio show as well."