Q+A

[Angus]

This programme is beyond crap.

A world class presenter like John Bowman should be subjected to this nonsense any more.

With all of the legitimate hits that RTE take, Bowman is truly world class and should be given a much more meaningful gig than this Daily Start letters page tripe

[Macy]

I've given up on it because Bowman is brutal at chairing it. Maybe's he's bored, but you could file this as an addition to the paxman thread imo. Doesn't get straight answers, allows people to shout down others on the panel, and doesn't clearly indentify the party hacks in the audience. I actually think he's quite good when he's on the radio, but only appears to be used at party conferences - seems to be underused by RTE generally.

[ltfc_2004]

Ah Q&A is so ****e, I rarely tune in these days and if i do its to see what hacks I know in the audience .............

[dfx-]

It's a show with a loaded audience and loaded questions.

[superfrank]

They do hand him stupid questions, like Eurovision ones and Munster, and stupid panellists. They had Liam Walsh on a few weeks ago and he was terrible.

Last night he had the knifes out for Gormley. The first question was how have the Greens done one year in. When they were talking about the tent at the Galway races, he used a Gormley quote from a long time ago about FF bewing corrupt and then said: "So what do you think about the tent, John?"

Q&A was hampered last night by all the farming morons who cheered anytime someone agreed with them.

RTÉ should switch Kenny with Bowman. Now that'd be great!

[Aberdonian Stu]

doesn't clearly indentify the party hacks in the audience.

That's one area where I will defend the show. If Bowman spots a party hack he outs them, he can't be expected to catch all of them but I think he's genuinely quite good at this aspect. I agree with pretty much everything else you said in that post.

Something I've mentioned before on other blogs/message boards is that the show would be well served by being moved around the country each week in much the way that Question Time on the BBC is. This would allow for greater variety in the audience, though granted there would still be an unhealthy amount of plants, and probably resulted in more fresh topics being used rather than just rehashing the same arguments over and over.

I'm not saying such a move would solve the problems currently associated with the show but I feel it would definitely result in some improvement on these fronts as well as bringing a fresher feel to the programme.

[TonyD]

Bowman is truly world class

Ya think ? I think, like many RTE presenters, he has serious ego issues.

[jebus]

Don't watch this show, but if the parties are planting people in the audience then the simple solution is to get rid of the audience is it not? How did Gormless respond to the FF tent question as a matter of interest?

[superfrank]

Yeah but at least he has a personality to back it up.

[bennocelt]

It's a show with a loaded audience and loaded questions.

yeah def
another thing, why so many for discussions when they have less than an hour

[Reality Bites]

Q&A slot is too late haven't seen it in ages should be on at 9.30pm

[cheifo]

I always cringe at the bit at the end where some idiot in the audience asks an unfunny question to try and show how funny and down to earth everybody can be.
Always with a smug "am'n't I quite the wit" look on their face they always ask something very whacky like
"if you had to nominate a member of the opposition to represent
Ireland in the Eurovision, who would you choose?"

If I was on the Panel(well who knows?..)I would look up at Mr Smug and just say.. "Why dont you go **** yourself.