Graham Norton: 'Hosting my own show is a pleasure and a privilege'

Graham Norton has agreed a deal with the BBC for three more series of his flagship chat show.

The deal, agreed with Norton and his production company So Television, starts with series 34, which will air in 2026.

Norton continues to draw a string of A-list talent to his sofa.

Most recently, Taylor Swift gave her first TV interview to Norton on the day of the release of her latest album The Life Of a Showgirl.

The latest series averaged 2.9 million viewers per episode across the run, the BBC said.

Clips from the show also frequently go viral on social media.

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

It has since been a fixture of the BBC’s Friday-night line-up.

Norton said: “Getting to host my own chat show is a huge pleasure as well as a privilege.

“I’m thrilled that the BBC are allowing me to continue for another three years. The whole team is looking forward to bringing the world’s brightest stars into the homes of the great British public!”

Kalpna Patel-Knight, head of entertainment at the BBC, said: “We are thrilled that The Graham Norton Show will remain a flagship part of the BBC’s entertainment offering for another three series.

“Graham sets the gold standard for celebrity interviews and continues to attract the best global talent to his sofa, it’s no wonder that the show remains so beloved by our audiences.”

The Graham Norton Show is on BBC One on Friday at 10.40pm with guests Julia Roberts and Colin Farrell.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift revealed her close friend Ed Sheeran found out the news of her engagement to NFL footballer Travis Kelce (right) along with the rest of the world on social media, saying the British singer “doesn’t have a phone”.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday to promote her new album The Life Of A Showgirl, the 35-year-old said communicating with Sheeran can be an intensive process.

While playing a game of true or false, Swift was asked by Fallon if Sheeran learned about the engagement “like everyone else did: on Instagram”, to which she replied: “So true (but) I have a perfect explanation, he doesn’t have a phone.”

She continued: “So he doesn’t have a phone, and this is like one thing I love about him, it’s very eccentric, love it.

“I’m going through my texts... and he just wasn’t there. You have to email him.

“If you want to set up a FaceTime, he has to find an iPad. You have to give it to him like he’s a child.

“This is one of my absolute favourite people on the planet. When the news came out, I was like ‘Oh my God, we forgot to call Ed! Oh no!’

“He’s like family. I love him. But he doesn’t have a phone.”

Swift was introduced by Fallon in a Life Of A Showgirl-inspired musical number, before showing off the engagement ring fiance Kelce proposed to her with.

“I look at it constantly. It doesn’t feel in any way normal for me,” she told Fallon.

“He’s just my favourite person I’ve ever met, no offence to everyone else.”

The pair revealed their engagement in August after two years of dating, announcing in a joint Instagram post: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”

Elsewhere in her appearance on The Tonight Show, Swift said The Life Of A Showgirl “has been the most well-matched era in terms of where my life was when I wrote it and then where I am now when it’s out in the world.”

She told Fallon: “(My previous album) The Tortured Poets Department, the name didn’t lie. I wrote that album and I was just miserable. And then when I put it out I was like, ‘I’m so happy now’. Release week meant just putting my phone in a drawer.

“This time feels so special because, with my albums I love to kind of showcase aspects of my personality that are in the extreme.

“ Tortured Poets Department... was really highlighting the facets of me that are a writer that’s earnest and stoic and raw... the part of me that wants to just write everything and give you everything I wrote... in just excruciating detail.

“That was the character of the poet and I wanted this to be the character of the showgirl, which is other aspects of a person’s personality where you’re funny and feisty and having a blast and flirty and sort of tongue-in-cheek and a little scandalous.”

Swift’s appearance comes after the Official Charts Company revealed The Life Of A Showgirl secured the biggest opening week of 2025 so far in the UK albums chart.

The 12-track album, released on Friday, has already reached 304,000 chart units, beating the opening week of her last album, The Tortured Poets Department, which achieved 270,000 units in its first full week last year.

Swift is on track to secure her 14th number one album in the UK if she manages to stay at the top of the chart.

In February, Swift surpassed Madonna to become the female artist with the most UK number one albums following a re-release of her album Lover (Live In Paris).

Written during the European leg of her Eras Tour, Swift’s new album pulls back the curtain on the singer’s life and romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce, indulging listeners with a fun and playful pop record.

The album was made with Swedish duo Max Martin and Shellback, reuniting the singer with the producers she worked with in 2017 for her album Reputation and 2014’s pop juggernaut album 1989.

The record features tracks including Opalite, which fans have speculated could be about her fiancé Kelce, 36, whose birthstone is opal.

The fifth song on the track list, which is always the most significant song on Swift’s albums, is called Eldest Daughter and sees the star confess: “When I said I don’t believe in marriage that was a lie.”

The Life Of A Showgirl is Swift’s first record since she announced her engagement to Kelce, and also the first since she revealed in May that she had regained control over her back catalogue.

Earlier this year, she was crowned global recording artist of the year for a fifth time – having previously won the award in 2014, 2019, 2022 and 2023.

Recognising her influence on popular culture, Swift was named Time magazine’s person of the year in 2023, the same year she embarked on her Eras Tour, which came to an end in December.