DESPITE being one of the BBC’s biggest stars for decades, Graham Norton switched channels to launch a new ITV series in a shock move.
Now we can reveal the channel’s secret plan to make Graham the new face of the channel – with hopes of poaching him permanently from the Beeb.
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Graham Norton’s new ITV show has struggled with plummeting ratings and bad reviews Credit: PA
The 63-year-old hosted ITV Showcase 2026 at The Design Museum in London Credit: Getty
However, the 63-year-old’s new show The Neighbourhood failed to land with bosses despite a huge advertising budget – throwing doubt on whether ITV will manage to lure Graham over.
It comes after the BBC pumped millions of pounds into Claudia Winkleman’s new chat show in hopes of it becoming one of its entertainment flagships.
An insider said: “It would be a huge coup to tempt Graham away from the BBC with a long-term project.
“They threw everything at The Neighbourhood to make it a big success, but it’s ended up a bit of a damp squib.”
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Graham hosts The Graham Norton Show on the BBC Credit: PA
Despite being given a prime slot for its launch show – sandwiched in between the I’m A Celebrity All Stars final – it’s fallen to 500k by episode three.
The ratings are similar to ITV shows including Genius Game and The Fortune Hotel, which have since been cancelled by ITV.
And in a move which seemed to show how the series had fallen below the channel’s expectations, the network dropped the whole series on ITVX late this week, despite initially planning to release it on the catch up service in line with its linear transmission.
Murmurings of ITV bending over backwards to attract Graham were further fuelled at its Showcase event last week.
The presenter was chosen to host the event – showcasing ITV’s biggest shows for 2026 – with a number of high-profile guests, including Gemma Artertan and Simon Cowell.
In a telling moment, Graham showed interest in former BBC host Gary Lineker’s new ITV reality show, The Box.
He said: “Now I like this, as someone who has worked at the BBC and gone on to present a show on ITV. Can’t go wrong…”
However, just days later his debut show received disappointing reviews from critics.
Luckily for Graham, he recently revealed The Graham Norton Show has been green lit by the BBC for a further three more series, which will kick off with season 34 in the autumn.
The TV presenter took home £2.4m last year, down from the £2.7m he received in 2023.
Graham revealed how is feeling happier with his chat show after a change in his filming schedule prevented him from “getting bored”.
The star now enjoys every series run throughout after switching to a longer six-month break between each season – giving him the opportunity to take on work on other channels.
Graham said on his podcast: “It means by the end of February I’m still really enjoying it, I’m not bored with it and then I kind of miss it because and I’ll be looking forward to coming back at the end of September.”
The Graham Norton Show launched on BBC Two in 2007 where it ran for two series before moving to BBC One where it’s remained ever since.
Along the way, Graham’s picked up multiple awards including BAFTA TV Awards, National Television Awards, British Comedy Awards, RTS Television Awards and many more.
He is believed to be one of the BBC’s highest earners but his pay is not included in the annual star salaries list because he is paid through his production company rather than the corporation itself.
The Neighbourhood launched on ITV last week Credit: itv
