TV3 has not ruled out airing the 6 unseen episodes of Blind Date which were pulled from their Autumn schedule last year. Al Porter fronted the evening entertainment show and was one of TV3’s biggest productions last year.

In November 2017, allegations emerged from multiple sources that Porter had been engaged in sexual misconduct and a repeat airing of one episode was pulled in light of the scandal.

In light of the allegations, Porter has reportedly lost €500,000 in revenue.

He has taken time away from the spotlight, resigning from his lunchtime radio talk show on Today FM and he was replaced by Rory Cowan as “Polly” in the Olympia Panto.

TV3 never aired six of the scheduled episodes hosted by Porter.

Head of programming Bill Malone refused to rule out airing the six episodes in the future.

Asked by the Irish Sun if Blind Date was axed, he replied: “Today is the spring schedule launch and Blind Date was never in the spring schedule launch. So it was never going to be discussed.”

Asked whether they would air as part of the autumn schedule, he said:

“We have an autumn launch, I guess, in autumn.”

Insiders claim that the unseen six episodes which have been recorded cost TV3 in the region of €500,000 and the station are waiting for the dust to settle on the scandal in order to recoup some of the loses with a late 2018 broadcast.

It was reported by sources on Twitter that Porter was in attendance at the Olympia on January 8th (his birthday). The cast of the panto reportedly wished him a happy birthday to which many (but not all) of the audience gave a round of applause.

Today FM took to Twitter today and announced that Muireann O’Connellwill be taking Porter’s place as Lunchtime preseter.

We’re DELIRA to announce @MuireannO_C as the new Lunchtime presenter (12-2) on #TodayFM!

She’ll be kicking off the brand new and exciting show on January 22nd! pic.twitter.com/IEFWNyMNoq

— Today FM 💛 (@TodayFM) January 10, 2018

Muireann, who is originally from Limerick, had already been filling the show since Al’s sudden departure and had featured regularly on the station prior to that.