RTÉ to air postponed Ireland’s Fittest Family season in 2025

RTÉ is set to air the 2024 season of Ireland’s Fittest Family next month after the show was postponed until further notice in October following the shock death of one of this year’s contestants, days before it was set to air.

The show will hit our screens in January, with a special tribute paid to the late Cillian Flaherty, who passed away in October aged just fifteen.

The Sunday World reports that the Flaherty family has given RTÉ the go-ahead to air the show, despite speculation that the twelfth season of the series would never air.

Though it hasn’t been revealed how far the family got in the sporting contest, it is understood that the teenager featured heavily in the episodes, so editing him out was not an option. Now the show will run from early January, with a special homage being paid to Cillian.

RTÉ announced in October that the show wouldn’t air then as planned due to the timing of the tragic incident.

Cillian Flaherty, 15, filmed the show with his family over the summer and was remembered by his school Blakestown Community School in Blanchardstown as a popular student who will be ‘hugely missed’.

At the time he passed away, a spokesperson for the school told the Independent: ‘This has come as a huge shock to our whole school community. Our sincere sympathies are with Cillian’s family and friends at this time.

‘Cillian was a very popular member of our school community and we know that he will be hugely missed by all those who knew him.’

The teenager was also a member of the under-16 team at Mountview Boys and Girls Football Club and Mulhuddart Football Club has also paid tribute to him.

A statement from RTÉ announcing the postponement of the show read: ‘The broadcast of the new series of Ireland’s Fittest Family originally scheduled to begin this Sunday night, has now been postponed following the death of one of this year’s participants subsequent to the completion of the series.’

‘RTÉ and Kite/Animo productions wish to extend our deepest sympathies to the bereaved family and friends at this time,’ before concluding: ‘Further details regarding the broadcast of the series will be provided in due course.’

This year marks the twelfth season of Ireland’s Fittest Family. The show features Davy Fitzgerald, Anna Geary, Donncha O’Callaghan, and Sonia O’Sullivan as the celebrity coaches this year.