Graham Norton's TV pay packet tops €2.79m

Irish chat show king's income from 'The Graham Norton Show' works out at over £116k (€133k) per episode 

The popular presenter draws A-listers to his couch, recent guests on 'The Graham Norton Show' including Taylor Swift, Cillian Murphy, Robbie Williams, and Julia Roberts. Picture: Jane Barlow/PA

Chat show king Graham Norton enjoyed a bumper pay packet of £2.43m (€2.79m) from his TV work for So Television last year.

That is according to accounts filed by ITV subsidiary So Television, which produces The Graham Norton Show and sells it to the BBC and to TV stations across the world, including Virgin Media in Ireland.

The accounts lodged with Companies House in the UK show the pay to Mr Norton reduced by £336,000 (€386,266), from £2.77m to £2.43m last year. The pay to Mr Norton works out at an average £116,117 (€133,148) per episode for each of the 21 episodes of  The Graham Norton Show  he presented in 2024.

Earlier this month, So Television confirmed it has agreed a deal with the BBC for three more series of the flagship chat-show which continues to attract entertainment A-listers, including Taylor Swift and Cillian Murphy earlier this month.

Graham Norton with his star-studded couch on October 2/3: Taylor Swift, Cillian Murphy, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Domhnall Gleeson, and Lewis Capaldi. Picture: Matt Crossick/PA

Guests slated to appear on the show over the next two Fridays include Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kim Kardashian.

The BBC said the latest series averaged 2.9m viewers per episode across the run and the new three-year deal is to commence in 2026.

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

Mr Norton’s pay — made up of presenter fees, production fees, and royalties — dropped last year after So Television’s revenues and profits decreased sharply.

So Television relies on The Graham Norton Show for the bulk of its revenues and company revenues in 2024 decreased by 30%, from £14.5m to £10.04m, as pre-tax profits decreased by 42% to £2.24m.

Revenue declined as two shows are not returning

The directors state that the revenue decrease “is due to a reduction in production hours as well as a decrease in distribution revenues”.

There was a decline in production hours delivered from 28 hours to 22 hours and the directors state the reduction in hours is due to two shows from 2023 — The John Bishop Show and Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda — not returning in 2024.

The accounts show UK revenues decreased by 28% or £3m, from £10.75m to £7.73m, while rest-of-world revenues decreased from £3.76m to £2.3m.

The company’s operating profits decreased by 80% from £2.55m to £522,211, and the net finance income of £1.72m increased profits to a pre-tax profit of £2.24m. Mr Norton’s TV fees are the entertainer’s main income stream.

Norton is also a bestselling author

Mr Norton’s novels  Holding, Home Stretch, A Keeper, Forever Home, Frankie, and The Swimmer have generated millions of euro in sales in Ireland and Britain since 2016 according to Nielsen BookData, though the author receives only a small fraction of the sales figure in royalties.

Festival Director Eimear O’Herlihy with Ryan Tubridy and Graham Norton at Evans Store in Bantry, Co Cork, before the finale of the 2025 West Cork Literary Festival. Picture: Darragh Kane

Born in Dublin and raised in Bandon, Co Cork, Norton first shot to prominence in 1996 for his part as Fr Noel Furlong in Father Ted before he moved to Channel 4 to host his own chat show.

Numbers employed by So Television last year remained at 11 and staff costs reduced from £2.29m to £1.98m.

Accumulated profits at So Television in December 2024 totalled £29.5m.