FALLING VIEWERSHIP figures for RTÉ’s Late Late Showhave been underlined by its slump to sixth in the ratings for last week.

Friday night’s edition attracted 517,900 viewers, the lowest rating of the season to date and among the lowest it has recorded.

Traditionally, the show topped the ratings on a weekly basis.

Friday’s show featured author Colm Tóibín, comedian Des Bishop, the model Alison Canavan and reality TV star turned bodybuilder Jodie Marsh.

It also featured architect Dermot Bannon, the presenter of the property programme Room to Improve, which has become something of a surprise ratings winner for RTÉ.

It finished second in last week’s ratings behind Thursday’s Nine O’Clock Newswith 578,300 viewers. The news had an average of 623,100 viewers.

The Late Late Showwas also surpassed by Fair Citywith 560,100 viewers, last week’s episode of The Secret Millionairewhich attracted 539,200 viewers and RTÉ’s Six-One news last Wednesday.

Last Friday’s ratings are worse than the first show of this year’s series, which attracted 650,000 viewers, although that increased to 744,000 viewers in the second week.

The figures are based on Live+Vosdal which measures not only viewers at the time but those who tape it for later viewing on the same day.

Host Ryan Tubridy has to answer criticisms of falling ratings persistently this year, but he has maintained that the Late Late Showratings always fluctuate.

An RTÉ spokeswoman said Friday night was exceptional as it clashed with the critical Andorra v Republic of Ireland European Championship qualifier.

She said the qualifier attracted 492,000 for the duration of the game and the two shows together attracted more than one million viewers and a peak audience share of 62 per cent at 10.14pm on Friday night.

She also said that the reach, which measures viewers who tune in for at least a minute, of Friday night’s Late Late Showwas 1.34 million.