TALENT competitions are one of the oldest television formats. The end result is always the same: it is one of the judges who becomes the star, and is famous long after the winning contestants have slipped back, usually through the net of a dodgy recording contract, to obscurity. So it has proved with You're A Star, which has just started a new season on RTE television. The winner last week, this week, and every week, is Brendan O'Connor.

Not that anyone on You're A Star is complaining. He is widely viewed as "the best thing that ever happened that show, " as pop manager Louis Walsh puts it. Called in at the last minute . . . at Walsh's suggestion . . .

to replace a judge who had dropped out, O'Connor, according to his fellow judge and regular victim Linda Martin, was the type of success that television likes best:

instant. "As far as I'm concerned he literally resurrected that programme. He shot it through the ratings, " says Linda Martin.

Talent competitions are a pantomime as well as a blood sport, and right from the start O'Connor positioned himself within You're A Star as the pantomime villain. Quite why he should want to do this is a mystery. He already had a platform within the Sunday Independent, writing the funny bit or "bottomer" on the front page each week. He is editor of its very successful Life magazine. He is well paid by journalistic standards, well dressed (he has the Cork male's fondness for seriously good clothes), hard working and clever. Perhaps he was bored. Perhaps he wanted the attention. Perhaps he wanted to be Simon Cowell . . . although surely this last seems unlikely. O'Connor is currently in contact with Simon Cowell . . .they were introduced by Louis Walsh . . . because O'Connor and his wife, Sarah Caden, are writing a film about a man who manages a no-talent boy band (Any resemblance to any person, either living or dead, is entirely coincidentalf) Certainly the money paid by You're A Starwill have come in handy. According to Village magazine last month the judges were paid a minimum of 1,000 per show and the series went on for 10 weeks. Village also claimed that most of the charities for whom the celebrities performed received much less than the judges . . . although this is, of course, a question for the production company, Screentime Shinawill, and for RTE, rather than for the individuals who appear on screen.

Brendan O'Connor was the youngest of five boys; he also has a younger sister. At UCC, friends say, it was his older brother, Eoin, who was the dominant personality. Their oldest brother, Brian, died three years ago in his 40s. Within the Sunday Independent family . . . a network of intergenerational and marital connections that has been called "worse than bloody EastEnders". . . he is a fixed star.

His wife, Sarah Caden, is a fellow Sunday Independent journalist and daughter of John Caden, radio producer and long-time associate of Eoghan Harris.

Brendan O'Connor is a talented man. People who only know the constructed public persona are surprised to find that they like him. "There is a melancholy about him, " said one woman. Although he has since distanced himself from them, his appearances on Don't Feed The Gondolas were funny.

His intelligence was never in doubt but his contradictory nature was also evident from the start. "Some days this lovely, babyish Brendan would turn up, " says someone who worked on DFTG. "And some days this horrible, monster Brendan would turn up, all queenie." There were rows on DFTG, amongst just about everybody, but whereas the others would move on from them, according to this man, "Brendan would take a row to the tomb."

None of this is unusual in television . . . or indeed in newspapers. The point is, long before You're A Star, Brendan O'Connor had proven form as a television presence . . . not an easy thing to acquire. Even the most casual viewer thought that he deserved a chance at another television format. But it never arrived on our screens.

And so to the controversial articles in the Sunday Independent . . . where the usual suspects get the lash . . . and to You're A Star.

From the start, Brendan O'Connor's criticisms and complaints of contestants were almost uniformly negative. You don't have to be a right-on feminist to think that his remarks are often misogynistic. He told Linda Martin that it looked like a long time since she'd been energised.

About this Linda Martin, ever the professional, is philosophical. His words, she says, "Even though they can cut you in two, they're very funny when you think about them afterwards."

Not all You're A Star contestants agree . . . some have allegedly been reduced to tears. O'Connor makes the point that he is only saying in public what the public mutters to itself in private. However public humiliation is very different from private insults and public humiliation is the salt in the talent competition stew.

You're A Star, despite its ratings success . . . 680,000 for the final of last summer's celebrity season . . . would not matter very much in a television culture with any sort of successful light entertainment history.

In Ireland, however, You're A Star seems like a miracle. By last summer O'Connor was such a star that some newspapers were saying that he looked like Benny Hill and his pantomime villain routine was such a success that Village . . . which seems slightly obsessed by him . . . ran a cover story on him with the headline 'Career Boor'.

The interesting thing is that friends say this aggressive monster bears little resemblance to the man they know. "He's like a good salesman, he totally believes what he's saying for 10 minutes and then changes his mind, " says one. He is very much admired as an editor, and one of his regular writers, Eamonn Sweeney, says, "He's very good to work for. He's encouraging. We've never had an argument, even though politically there's things I've written that I know he wouldn't agree with."

Like many people with a self-generated reputation as a tough guy, Brendan O'Connor is said by those who know him to be sensitive . . . "Very sensitive about his weight" . . . and Linda Martin says that, offscreen, he is "really kind" to many Yo u'r e A Star hopefuls. He works hard, he plays hard and can be excellent company . . .funny, restless, full of energy. His wife, a much quieter personality, is well liked.

"He's lucky to have her, " said one friend.

Brendan O'Connor is one of the brightest journalists of his generation. He has worked to become a light entertainment villain. It will be interesting to see where he goes next.

C.V.

Name: Brendan O'Connor

Date of Birth: 23 January 1970

Childhood: Five boys, one girl in family. Lived in Melbourn, Bishopstown, Cork. Father a dairy scientist

Education: Colaiste an Spioraid Naomh, Bishopstown. University College Cork

Married: Sarah Caden

In The News Because: He's the bad guy in You're A Star