Karen Koster admits she was 'concerned' about Muireann O'Connell's TV career

The Virgin Media presenters shook things up when they traded places on the station last year, meaning Muireann now presents breakfast show Ireland AM while Karen works on evening programme The Six O’Clock show.

But when Karen's employers approached her about starting a job on The Six O’Clock Show alongside Martin King, she became concerned that Limerick native Muireann was getting booted from the station entirely.

“I was as surprised as viewers were,” she told the RTÉ Guide.

“I started having conversations with them around mid-summer and to be honest, my one concern and first question was: what happens to Muireann?

“I wanted to be certain that she was happy with it, that I wasn’t swooping in to take a job from someone

“They didn’t tell me in the early days that it was going to be a direct swap.”

The 40-year-old said that her main priority was telling her Ireland AM co-hosts Tommy Bowe and Alan Hughes the news.

She said: “I was completely oblivious, to be honest, of the other changes and just focusing on when it was going to pan out and when I could tell Tommy and Alan.”

Karen said it took a while to adjust to the new working hours on her evening chat show because she and her family had gotten used to her previous routine of getting up early.

“It was a big adjustment for all of us, especially for [her husband] John,” she explained.

“He had gone from owning the mornings and having his routine down, to feeling like I was under his feet all the time because I was home, so he found that that a bit strange.

“So, the job bit is easy; it's all the other factors around it.

“I thought not being tired all the time would cancel out other challenges but it didn't. But everything has started to click into place.

“If the family life isn't working, nothing is,” she added.