It’s set to be the most spectacular opening number in the show’s history.

You can try and pretend it doesn’t bother you, but the Late Late Toy Show is always a massive deal in Ireland and this year is set to be bigger than anything that’s gone before. The producers behind a show that’s always one of, if not THE most watched show on Irish television every year, have revealed that plans for the show’s opening sequence are so big that they’ve drafted in students from IADT Dun Laoghaire to help make their epic vision become a reality. That epic vision will also require some of Ireland’s best young performers and the search to find them started today (Monday, 24 October) in Cork, with further auditions set to take place in Galway and Dundalk this week. The audition process, it should be noted, is open to invitees only. If you’re one of the many, many people looking for tickets, meanwhile, you can find details on how to do so here; be warned that 100,000 people applied for them last year, so there’s a strong chance of disappointment. Commenting on taking the show on the road in the hunt for performers for the second year in a row, Late Late show host Ryan Tubridy said: “I am tremendously excited to be taking the show on the road again. We did this for the first time last year and we uncovered some hidden gems that we really wouldn’t have discovered had we not taken the Toy Show to them. “Their contribution to last year’s show was immense. There is so much untapped talent in this country and I’m really looking forward to getting out there and finding it.”