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Graham Norton: You can’t justify my BBC wages, so I don’t try



Graham Norton has revealed that he “doesn’t try” to justify his £610,000 salary and suggested that the difference between BBC and ITV wages would “shock” the public.

The chat show host, 56, came third in the BBC’s list of top 20 earners, released in July, and said that he finds the annual ranking “odd.”

“All the people who say, ‘He earns that, he doesn’t deserve that,’ they’re absolutely right,” he told the Radio Times.

“You cannot justify my wages, so I don’t try. Am I still cashing the cheques? Yes, because somehow the market forces have decreed this is my value.

Shock: Norton implied the public would be surprised by ITV salaries too (Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images)

“I don’t discuss money. I don’t meet Tony Hall and go, ‘Actually, Tony, I’d like some more. Thanks, Tony.’”

Discussing the alleged “disparity” between BBC and ITV salaries, he said: “For some reason MPs want to know what famous people at the BBC earn. If they could get ITV to tell them what Phillip Schofield gets, they’d love to know.

Also, I have to say, what would really shock the public is to discover the disparity between ITV and BBC. People would go, ‘Wow!’”

Host: Norton with guests Helen Mirren, RuPaul and Jack Whitehall during a recent taping (PA)

He added: “It’s not like I want to dob people in it, but you read that list and go, really? Me and Gary Lineker are top of the tree? No. We all know there are people who earn a lot more than me and Gary.”

Norton went on to suggest that “the popular press” may “bring the BBC down,” claiming: “People will look back at a golden age of the BBC and think that was an amazing thing we had and remarkably good value.”

The full interview with Norton appears in the new issue of Radio Times (Radio Times)

The Graham Norton Show debuted on BBC Two in February 2007 before moving to BBC One in October 2009 and has run for 26 series.

Norton also presents the BBC’s coverage of Eurovision and hosts a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio 2. 

Read the full interview in the new issue of Radio Times, out now.



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