Dermot Bannon has revealed that he finds it more difficult to make Room to Improve now than when he started out on the property renovation show.
The affable architect has headed up the RTÉ One home makeover series since its inception in 2007 and is grateful that people are still watching in their droves.
Speaking alongside Room to Improve's no-nonsense Quantity Surveyor Claire Irwin, Bannon expressed his relief at the success of the first two episodes of season 15, which were viewed by well over half a million people.
"It's a funny thing being in television, anybody who works in the media, you always assume nobody is going to watch, that's the way our psyche is," he said. "Even though everybody around us is like 'Dermot it'll be fine,’ I always assume nobody is going to be watching.
"You put yourself under a lot of pressure - you have to make it better than last year. So you're trying for new stories, you're trying for different types of people, different types of houses. You're trying to respond to what's going on in the economy.
"I find it harder to make the show now than I did when I started because at the start there was a lot of novelty with it."
"The last three months have been horrendously stressful trying to get it all done and finished and get storylines that are relevant and all that. So when the [viewing] figures come out on a Monday morning, it's not like ‘wahey’ - it's actually a relief," he shared.
"I'd be quite happy if the viewing figures were just acceptable and good. It's a little bit of validation that people are watching it."
When asked what they think the secret behind the long-running success of the show is, Donegal-born Quantity Surveyor Claire Irwin said: "I think everybody wants to improve their own home. I've never met somebody that was 100% happy with their current home. Everybody has aspirations and dreams and people love looking at other people’s houses."
Bannon continued: "Everybody can relate to having a roof over their head, it's something that is important to everybody. It's not a niche thing, it's your home. And I think people watch it for different reasons, for tips on small spaces, big spaces, people will take tiny little things from it. Room to Improve means something to people.
"But I also think our homeowners are brilliant, and they open up to us constantly and they're not afraid of telling you how stressed they are, and I think we enjoy the process. We enjoy watching them."
The TV presenter said the "property porn" aspect of it is only a tiny part of the draw.
"We have 50 minutes of a show, there's 8 minutes of a reveal at the end, there is maybe a visit to another house, the rest is all on building sites! So I think people enjoy watching people going through the stress of the build and the personal stories and how they're finding it.
"We always pick very regular Irish people who we can all relate to. It's that mix, it's the nosiness, it's the fact that it's a home and then we get great people telling stories is the kind of the magic behind it."
Viewers undoubtedly tune in to see Bannon's often heated debates with his clients on-site. The architect said that being in the middle of it is "not easy".
"I'll give you a little secret on TV, sometimes they have to film it from a couple of different angles. So sometimes when you're having a bit of a row or a bit of a debate, when you see my face we're going through it for the second time," he shared.
"That can be pretty horrendous. That's the stressful part of it, you are living through it and then it's even worse because there's a camera there and they get more nervous.
"They tend not to after about week number two - they forget the cameras because they have all their money invested in this. They don't really care about the cameras, they care about their house.
"The stressful bits, they are quite heightened and they are quite stressful when you're filming, but it’s just ripping off the plaster and you just have to do it."
The next episode of Room to Improve airs on Sunday night at 9.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
