Graham Norton pay from top-rated chat show falls again to €2.47m

ITV subsidiary So Television produces The Graham Norton Show for BBC and stations worldwide, including Virgin Media

Graham Norton enjoyed a pay packet of £2.12 million (€2.47 million) from his TV work for ITV subsidiary, So Television, which produces the multi-award winning The Graham Norton Show, down 13 per cent and over 23 per cent in 2025. That works out at £101,260 per episode last year. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images
Graham Norton enjoyed a pay packet of £2.12 million (€2.47 million) from his TV work for ITV subsidiary, So Television, which produces the multi-award winning The Graham Norton Show, down 13 per cent and over 23 per cent in 2025. That works out at £101,260 per episode last year. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

Chat show king Graham Norton enjoyed a pay packet of £2.12 million (€2.47 million) from his TV work for ITV subsidiary, So Television, last year.

So Television produces the multi-award winning The Graham Norton Show and sells it to the BBC and to TV stations across the world, including Virgin Media in Ireland.

Accounts just lodged with Companies House in the UK for So Television show that Norton’s pay fell by 13 per cent from £2.43 million in 2024, and is now over 23 per cent down on the £2.77 million the Bandon, Co Cork-raised TV star earned from that source in 2025.

The 2025 figure works out at an average £101,260 per episode for each of the original 21 Graham Norton Shows, he presented in 2025.

Last year, So Television agreed a deal with the BBC for three further years of the flagship chat show which continues to attract entertainment A-listers.

The show continues to be strongly supportive of Irish stars. Actors Cillian Murphy, Domhnall Gleeson, Jessie Buckley, Nicola Coughlan and singer, Hozier joined the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lawrence and Kim Kardashian on the couch last year.

The BBC said that its 2025 series averaged 2.9 million viewers per episode across the run, retaining its status as the biggest chat show in the British and Irish markets. It also continues to generate millions of global video views across YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

The three-year deal commences later this year with the broadcast of Series 34 from the end of September.

The Graham Norton Show started on BBC Two in 2007 where it ran for two series before moving to BBC One.

So Television’s revenues fell by 16 per cent last year to £8.44 million from £10.04 million. However, operating profits – due in part to Norton’s pay-cut – doubled from £522,211 to £1.087 million.

So Television relies on The Graham Norton Show for the vast bulk of its revenues. The directors said the fall in revenue was due to a reduction in ancillary revenues.

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Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times