Graham Norton to leave BBC Radio 2 after a decade

Mr Snow

BBC Radio 2’s Saturday morning presenter Graham Norton has announced he’s leaving the station next month after 10 years in the slot.

His final programme will be the week before Christmas – on Saturday December 19th 2020 the best of luck to him.

i dont know who will take over.

Atlantic Dawn

Going to RTE perhaps?...lol

Montage of Feck

RTE will be upping their pay to likes of Tubs in case the bbc try to steal our "talent".

Dempo1

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Going to RTE perhaps?...lol

Please, pretty please, take over the Turdbidy show and while your at it, the late late too Graham

Car99

Dempo1 wrote: »

Please, pretty please, take over the Turdbidy show and while your at it, the late late too Graham

Graham would be looking for 5 times tubs salary

Dempo1

Car99 wrote: »

Graham would be looking for 5 times tubs salary

I know, I'll start a collection or go fund me,

Just wishful thinking I know, but God almighty RTE needs some decent talent

coylemj

I always wondered why he did that Saturday (10 a.m. - 1 p.m.) program on R2, it's not like he needed the money. I imagine it's pretty tough going as it's heavy on chat, there's often three guests spread over the three hours so a fair amount of prep. work required beforehand. And you have the agony aunt slot with whatshername - yer one who sounds like she smokes 40 Woodbines a day. Because it's not like the TV show where, with the right mix of guests, he can let them loose on each other so he just has to moderate the discussion but not really contribute anything. On the radio that's not an option when you have one guest at a time and no distracting visuals.

bureau2009

Very interesting vacancy waiting for a talented broadcaster.

BBC Radio 2 is very slick and has high production standards.

TheHomeService

bureau2009 wrote: »

Very interesting vacancy waiting for a talented broadcaster.

BBC Radio 2 is very slick and has high production standards.

Agreed! Sadly, they may be tempted to go for another “Celeb”, following on from Jonathan Ross and Norton.

Here’s a thought, could they be tempted to give that Saturday gig to Ken Bruce, thereby freeing up the weekday slot?

Mr Snow

TheHomeService wrote: »

Agreed! Sadly, they may be tempted to go for another “Celeb”, following on from Jonathan Ross and Norton.

Here’s a thought, could they be tempted to give that Saturday gig to Ken Bruce, thereby freeing up the weekday slot?

Ken Bruce has more listeners than the breakfast and hometime show on a weekday

TheHomeService

Mr Snow wrote: »

Ken Bruce has more listeners than the breakfast and hometime show on a weekday

Indeed he does. However, it may not be his decision. He’s 69, and has been in that spot for nearly 30 years. There were rumours that TPTB wanted the mid morning show to be fronted by a female broadcaster some time ago.

I hope he stays where he is. I like Ken.

Mad_maxx

never even knew he did radio

vince

Could be good for a show on corks red fm. Hes in cork lots now,

ford fiesta

make no mistake, the slot will be handed to a female celeb

DopeTech

vince wrote: »

Could be good for a show on corks red fm. Hes in cork lots now,

Obviously Breakfast with Ray and Graham!!

generalgerry

Just think about it - This week Graham Norton interviews Michael Harding, Anna Geary and somebody from RTE about their book.

I'm not sure he will go back to RTE.

ITV2

ford fiesta wrote: »

make no mistake, the slot will be handed to a female celeb

on merit of course.

Car99

generalgerry wrote: »

Just think about it - This week Graham Norton interviews Michael Harding, Anna Geary and somebody from RTE about their book.

I'm not sure he will go back to RTE.

In fairness Michael Harding is a great guest on any show. Hes brings a certain humour to his misery and he is the first to acknowledge that the Irish love a bit if misery.

Genghis

ford fiesta wrote: »

make no mistake, the slot will be handed to a female celeb

Laura Whitmore maybe.

Declan A Walsh

Or maybe a BBC Radio One presenter will move "upstairs" to Radio Two. That's happened many times over the years.

ford fiesta

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

Or maybe a BBC Radio One presenter will move "upstairs" to Radio Two. That's happened many times over the years.

Scott Mills perhaps, he has already filled in many times on weekday Radio 2

coylemj

Dermot O'Leary (currently Sat, 9-11) could get bumped up to Graham's slot and Angela Scanlon could backfill his slot. Or they could leave Dermot where he is and give Graham's slot to Angela.

Slotting her into the regular schedule (she currently does a lot of graveyard gigs) would be a move against the trend of oldie (65+) DJs (Steve Wright, Johnnie Walker, Paul Gambaccini, Ken Bruce, Tony Blackburn) on R2. It's beginning to look like a retirement home. Even Elaine Paige (Sun 1-3 p.m.) is over 70.

weldoninhio

Car99 wrote: »

Graham would be looking for 5 times tubs salary

Five times the salary for a thousand times the talent. Seems fair.

weldoninhio

ford fiesta wrote: »

make no mistake, the slot will be handed to a female celeb

Grayson Perry or Eddie Izzard.

Declan A Walsh

coylemj wrote: »

Dermot O'Leary (currently Sat, 9-11) could get bumped up to Graham's slot and Angela Scanlon could backfill his slot. Or they could leave Dermot where he is and give Graham's slot to Angela.

Slotting her into the regular schedule (she currently does a lot of graveyard gigs) would be a move against the trend of oldie (65+) DJs (Steve Wright, Johnnie Walker, Paul Gambaccini, Ken Bruce, Tony Blackburn) on R2. It's beginning to look like a retirement home. Even Elaine Paige (Sun 1-3 p.m.) is over 70.

A lot of former BBC Radio One deejays there.

As regards the ages of a lot of the presenters on BBC Radio Two, maybe particularly perhaps those not on weekday daytime slots, BBC Radio Two is a station geared towards older age groups, so it kind of figures. Some of the audience have grown up listening to those presenters and continue to listen to them.

ford fiesta

Declan A Walsh wrote: »

A lot of former BBC Radio One deejays there.

As regards the ages of a lot of the presenters on BBC Radio Two, maybe particularly perhaps those not on weekday daytime slots, BBC Radio Two is a station geared towards older age groups, so it kind of figures. Some of the audience have grown up listening to those presenters and continue to listen to them.

That may be true, but BBC Radio 2 have been targeting towards the thirtysomethings in the past few years and as well as changing to a handful of younger presenters, they have altered their music policy taking much of the 50s 60s and 70s music off their main playlist. Big band and Album shows are gone.

You hear a lot of 90s and 00s and some mainstream/pop chart music being played now.

coylemj

ford fiesta wrote: »

You hear a lot of 90s and 00s and some mainstream/pop chart music being played now.

+1 very obvious from the playlist, a mix of old reliables like Neil Diamond and Shirley Bassey but plenty of current stars as well....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2qNJsnjYFvbLrK9CZ0CfYfM/radio-2-new-music-playlist

Makes Ronan Collins sound like more and more a golden oldies show. Which it always was but with BBC R2 targeting a younger audience. the comparison gets more stark by the week.

ford fiesta

coylemj wrote: »

+1 very obvious from the playlist, a mix of old reliables like Neil Diamond and Shirley Bassey but plenty of current stars as well....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2qNJsnjYFvbLrK9CZ0CfYfM/radio-2-new-music-playlist

But you are less likely to hear Neil Diamond and Shirley Bassey's music from the 1960s or 1970s on daytime or peak Radio 2.

dxhound2005

coylemj wrote: »

+1 very obvious from the playlist, a mix of old reliables like Neil Diamond and Shirley Bassey but plenty of current stars as well....

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2qNJsnjYFvbLrK9CZ0CfYfM/radio-2-new-music-playlist

Makes Ronan Collins sound like more and more a golden oldies show. Which it always was but with BBC R2 targeting a younger audience. the comparison gets more stark by the week.

It is a false comparison. BBC Radio 2 is a mostly music station, with interviews and other speech a minority. On RTE Radio 1 the only music between 7 am and 8 pm is Ronan Collins. There is plenty of choice elsewhere for that hour if people don't like his sort of music.

The rest of the music output on Radio 1 is the graveyard shifts. Without checking I think John Creedon gets about 50,000 listeners compared to Collins' 220,000. And that figure is well below the speech content which precedes and follow the Collins programme.

generalgerry

Montage of Feck wrote: »

RTE will be upping their pay to likes of Tubs in case the bbc try to steal our "talent".

Well they did steal Declan Rice and Jack Grealish. Please BBC, take Ryan Tubridy, I'll even throw in a Ray D'Arcy with it.

irs

For a while this year I flicked between BBC Radio 1 & 2 and was odd how R1 was playing loads of 00's era songs and R2 was increasingly playing stuff from that decade too. In a few years when the likes of Fearne Cotton and Scott Mills have replaced Ken Bruce and Steve Wright I could see there being no pre-2000 music in daytime.

ford fiesta

I wonder why did Tubridy's stints on BBC Radio 2 a few years back came to an abrupt end ??

California Dreamer

Of course there was a reason - money!

https://t.co/oKs7nTuZfI

ford fiesta

California Dreamer wrote: »

Of course there was a reason - money!

https://t.co/oKs7nTuZfI

BBC could no longer afford him on radio

California Dreamer

ford fiesta wrote: »

BBC could no longer afford him on radio

Is that a fact or an opinion?

Chuck Noland

Graham announced as moving too Virgin Media radio group

Mr Snow

Claudia Winkleman is taking over Graham Norton

https://twitter.com/BBCRadio2/status/1330795038348103681

Demonique

generalgerry wrote: »

Just think about it - This week Graham Norton interviews Michael Harding, Anna Geary and somebody from RTE about their book.

I'm not sure he will go back to RTE.

Back to RTE? I thought he never worked on irish tv in the first place