The Graham Norton Show

The Graham Norton Show
Genre	Comedy
Presented by	Graham Norton
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	19
No. of episodes	292 (list of episodes)
Production
Location(s)	The London Studios
Running time	45 minutes
Production company(s)	So Television
Distributor	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	BBC Two (2007–09) BBC One (2009–present)
Picture format	HDTV: 16:9
Original release	22 February 2007 – present
Chronology
Related shows	So Graham Norton (1998–2002) V Graham Norton (2002–03) The Graham Norton Effect (2004) Graham Norton's Bigger Picture (2005–2006)
External links
Website

The Graham Norton Show is a British comedy chat show broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom. It was shown on BBC Two from February 2007 to May 2009 and has been on BBC One since October 2009. Presented by Irish comedian Graham Norton, the show's format is very similar to his previous Channel 4 programmes, So Graham Norton and V Graham Norton, both of which were also produced by So Television.

Programming

BBC Two

The show mirrors So and V with strong adult humour along with Graham's monologue at the beginning of the show and often a musical guest to play out over the credits. Although the rude objects in "Graham's drawer" did not survive, the phone calls and hidden camera surprises have. These surprises are sometimes based around the guests, such as Sarah Beeny's dating website, a TARDIS on the South Bank when David Tennant appeared and a wine-tasting group drinking Gérard Depardieu's wine whilst he was on the show. Some of the surprises, such as the wine-tasting, have been arranged through ideas submitted by viewers, stating where they will be when the show is recorded.

At the end of the show, after any band or artist performance, an extra 5 minute section of the show was recorded, known as the "Cooldown". This section was seen in an extended weekend repeat, called Graham Norton Uncut, and was also made available as a downloadable podcast. As well as showing the "Cooldown", it also included previously unseen parts from the original episode. This section often involved the audience, such as guessing an audience member's partner and playing mass charades.

After Graham's short monologue, he always introduced two guests. If there was a third guest, they were usually introduced later in the show. If the two guests are connected in some way (for example, Dustin Hoffman and his wife), they were the only ones introduced at the start. If musical guests were involved in the show, one of several things happened. Some performers, such as Enrique Iglesias, were on stage from the very beginning. Others, such as Gareth Gates came on stage about 5 to 7 minutes before their performance for a short interview. Also, some musical guests only performed during the end credits and participated in the Cooldown section of the programme. However, all bands performed during the credits and were interviewed in the Cooldown segment.

BBC One

Once the show moved to BBC One, it moved to Monday nights, the guestlist increased to three or occasionally four people, with an accompanying reduction in Norton's signature pieces. A typical show consisted of one big celebrity name, a comedian sitting in the aforementioned comedy chair and a well-known musical personality who would all be introduced after the monologue. Sometimes three guests are introduced at the top of the show with the musical guest brought in about 10 to 15 minutes before the end of the show.

Unlike the BBC Two show, the BBC One show does not end with the musical performance, but with a new audience participation segment called That's All We've Got Time For, where audience members sit in the famous red chair and begin to tell a humorous story. Graham and his guests listen to the stories and if Graham gets bored, he – or occasionally a guest – pulls the lever and the chair falls backwards, dumping the speaker from it.^[1] The red chair segment was inspired by comedian Ronnie Corbett's longwinded armchair monologues.^[2]

After the end of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, it was announced that The Graham Norton Show would be taking over the coveted Friday night slot. The show premiered on 22 October 2010.

Series

The first series began at 10pm on 22 February 2007 on BBC Two and was originally slated to end on 24 May 2007 after 13 episodes. However, the series proved such a hit that it was extended for an additional six episodes.

A 12-week second series began on 11 October 2007, and culminated with a Boxing Day special and New Year's compilation from previous episodes.

The show made its North American premiere on BBC America on 2 June 2007, one week after what was supposed to be the final episode of Series 1 (before its extension).

Series 2 premiered on BBC America on 20 October 2007. Unlike the previous series, each episode premiered in the United States only 9 days after the initial UK broadcast. However, the final three episodes were broadcast in reverse order (with Episode 12 being shown on BBC America a few days earlier than on BBC Two. The same thing occurred in Series 4 with the Christmas special airing on BBC America 10 days before the BBC Two broadcast.

Series 3 began its run on 17 April 2008. For series 3, the "Cooldown" segment has been dropped, and the uncut show is just the full uncut 45-minute version of the show.

The show was originally recorded in studio 2 at The London Studios, but moved to studio 1, due to the slot of The Paul O'Grady Show and the high audience numbers.

The show continues to be broadcast in a 30-minute version on Thursdays at 10pm with Graham Norton Uncut, the uncut version shown on Sundays at around 11pm in a 45-minute version. However, BBC Two in Wales sometimes broadcast the Thursday edition later than the rest of the BBC Two regions, usually after Newsnight at 11:20 pm because they would usually have local programmes in the 10:00pm slot. BBC Two Northern Ireland has also done the same, and they have during series three, broadcast Thursday's show on Friday nights at 10pm on BBC Two Northern Ireland because of local programming on Thursdays.

Series 4 began its run on 3 October 2008 at 10pm on BBC Two (however, both BBC Two Wales and BBC Two Northern Ireland broadcast the show at a later time due to their regional programming). The Sunday uncut editions have been kept, with the first uncut edition broadcast on BBC Two late on Sunday night.

Speaking on ITV's This Morning on 21 January 2009, Norton said he would be back with the chat show in March 2009. As he was appearing in a West End play at the time, he mentioned he would have to miss the Saturday performance during the run of the play, as this is the day he records the show for the BBC.

Broadcast

In the United States, starting 11 April 2013, cable/satellite network BBC America aired new episodes on Thursdays.^[3] It then aired every Saturday night on BBC America, normally eight days after the BBC.. Following the 2014 New Year's Eve episode, the programme failed to air, until finally returning to the channel in late February. In November 2015, The Weinstein Company bought the series rights in the United States and took a break while negotiating a new contract wth BBC America.^[4] On 18 January 2016, BBC America aired the 2015 New Year's Eve episode.^[5] On 21 January 2016, the network announced that the programme would be returning on Monday, 25 January 2016, with new episodes now airing three days after the BBC airing.^[6]

In Canada, cable channel BBC Canada broadcasts the show Friday nights. In Ireland, the show is broadcast on TV3 and its sister channel 3e one day after the BBC broadcast on Saturdays. As of 2015, UTV Ireland aired the show every Sunday. TV3 Group will continue to air "Best of" Specials recorded prior to 2015.

In Australia, the series is broadcast on Network Ten on Friday nights, airing one week after original broadcast in the UK.^[7][8] Additionally, for Pay TV viewers (Foxtel and Austar), it airs on UKTV at 9.30pm Mondays, with repeats on Tuesdays and Saturdays. It previously aired on ABC2 on Thursday nights from 2007 to 2012. In New Zealand, the show was originally broadcast on UKTV. Since the start of Series 11 on 4 May 2012, the show has been broadcast on TV3 on Friday nights.

In India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives The Graham Norton Show airs Saturday nights on Comedy Central, a week after the BBC broadcast.

Episodes

The Graham Norton Show has broadcast eighteen series since its debut in 2007. Series 19 premiered on 25 March 2016.^[9] All ratings are taken from BARB.

Series		Episodes	Originally aired			Average ratings (millions)[10]
			First aired	Last aired	Network
	1	19	22 February 2007	5 July 2007	BBC Two	N/A
	2	12	11 October 2007	26 December 2007		N/A
	3	12	17 April 2008	3 July 2008		N/A
	4	14	2 October 2008	30 December 2008		N/A
	5	12	5 March 2009	28 May 2009		N/A
	6	13	5 October 2009	31 December 2009	BBC One	N/A
	7	12	12 April 2010	28 June 2010		N/A
	8	20	22 October 2010	11 March 2011		N/A
	9	13	15 April 2011	8 July 2011		N/A
	10	21	21 October 2011	16 March 2012		N/A
	11	13	13 April 2012	6 July 2012		4.14
	12	20	19 October 2012	22 March 2013		4.47
	13	14	5 April 2013	5 July 2013		4.16
	14	20	11 October 2013	28 February 2014		4.48
	15	13	4 April 2014	27 June 2014		4.07
	16	24	26 September 2014	20 March 2015		N/A
	17	13	10 April 2015	3 July 2015		N/A
	18	20	25 September 2015	19 February 2016		N/A
	19	TBA	25 March 2016	TBA		N/A

References

1. "The Graham Norton Show". BBC. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
2. The Graham Norton Show, BBC One, 1 April 2016
3. "About the Show | The Graham Norton Show". BBC America. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
4. Owen, Rob (2015-11-06). "TV Q&A: 'The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,' 'The Graham Norton Show' and closed captioning". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
5. "graham norton on Twitter". Twitter.
6. "The Graham Norton Show - Press Resources - BBC America Press Room".
7. "TEN 2012 Programming Launch:TV Tonight". 'David Knox'. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
8. "Ten 2012 - Knowfirst". 'Elmer Fudd'. Retrieved 18 August 2011.
10. "Top 30s". BARB.

External links

• The Graham Norton Show at BBC Programmes
• The Graham Norton Show at BBC America
• The Graham Norton Show at the British Comedy Guide
• The Graham Norton Show at TV3