The 2 Johnnies can now see the benefits of leaving 2FM with more time for their personal lives

Johnny B and Johnny Smacks have more time to focus on their flourishing careers, as well as their personal lives, since leaving their popular drivetime radio show

The 2 Johnnies are beginning to see the benefits of having more time since leaving 2FM.

The Tipperary duo left their drivetime slot on the radio station, alongside the likes of Doireann Garrihy and Jennifer Zamparelli, earlier this summer. They explained at the time their schedule was too hectic and “something had to give”.

Now, four months on from their shock exit, the hit podcasters are still busier than ever with work, but have noticed they have a bit more time to invest in their personal lives.

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Johnny Smacks told RSVP Live: “We are probably only now starting to see the time benefits of leaving radio. We absolutely loved it, but when it came to the time you need to put into something and the time you have off… we have our personal lives to live as well. Only now we are seeing the benefit of it.

“Now we actually have a half day Saturday and Sundays off,” Johnny B added. “Smacks is building a house, and I’m renovating as well. I’m definitely finishing up earlier in the evenings.

“The podcast is the most important thing in our universe and if we did nothing else we would still put seven days into it. The more time we have, we put into that,” while Johnny Smacks quipped: “My dog now knows I’m his owner.”

The 2 Johnnies are back on TV tonight with a brand new series of their RTE2 chat show, Late Night Lock In. The lads were delighted to hear it had been renewed for a new season and don’t worry over how many people are watching.

“We don’t lose sleep over ratings. I’m sure if they are bad, someone will tell us. We’ve never worried about ratings in anything we do. If it was sh**e, they wouldn’t have brought it back,” Johnny Smacks explained.

“We would worry more over the content of the show and how it comes across. We make sure our job is to give people entertainment on a Thursday night and have a laugh. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. It’s not a serious show.”

People watch television very differently these days.

Johnny B said: “You could be up against the Champions League final on a Thursday night, but more people will watch on the [RTE] player, or a couple of clips could go viral on social media.

“The ratings the next morning are important, but the way people consume television is changing too. It can be hard to know how much to read into it.”

The 2 Johnnies are hugely popular double act, but they understand their humour is not everyone’s cup of tea and don’t stress about what people say on social media.

Johnny Smacks said: “You can’t live your life worrying about people getting upset on Twitter. People choose to be upset on Twitter a lot of the time.”

Not every joke or segment makes it to air on their chat show, but the lads appreciate being surrounded by a trusted production crew.

Johnny B added: “Between us all, we meet in the middle. There is lots of over and back, we don’t always agree. But that’s what it means to work in a creative space, everyone has to be able to put on their big boy pants and be told ‘that is not a good idea’.”

The 2 Johnnies come as a duo but the pair, who are best friends away from work, know how to navigate different opinions or disagreements they may have about their career.

Johnny B said: “There are always different preferences. I’d be more into the music and Smacks would be more into the onscreen stuff a little bit more, maybe. No two people are the same, but we’re very open with each other.

“We’ve never had any real disagreements because, across different mediums, we feel like we’re still on the same crusade – representing country people whose accents aren’t heard enough on TV and radio.”

“We discuss everything with each other. It’s not like when the cameras turn off that we don’t talk to each other. We’re best friends behind it all and that’s the most important thing. If we ever weren’t, we wouldn’t be doing this and that’s a fact,” Johnny Smacks responded.

While Johnny B added: “If it came to a point where we didn’t enjoy it, we wouldn’t do it.”

The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In airs Thursday, October 3rd at 9.35pm on RTE2 and RTE Player.

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