Graham Norton ‘surprise’ announcement leaves fans disheartened

Graham Norton, renowned TV host of The Graham Norton Show has surprised his fans with an abrupt announcement of his departure from his weekend show on Virgin Radio UK, ending a three-year stint.

Fans were taken aback when the 60-year-old TV presenter shared the news on social media, disclosing that this weekend would mark his final appearance on the show.

He said: "It is my final weekend of shows here at Virgin Radio."

Devastated fans took to Twitter, with one writing: "Waking up to hear Graham Norton is not going to be part of my weekends any more is a serious kick in the a**. I will seriously miss you but can understand why you want your weekends back. #GrahamNorton".

Another fan penned: "Gutted to hear Graham Norton is ending his weekend shows on Virgin Radio. A regular listener since he started there (and previously on R2 obvs) - as he’s a warm funny and engaging listen. Plus a good radio interviewer, something that’s very underrated."

Graham first launched his career at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and on the back of his success he landed a spot on BBC Radio 4 show Loose Ends as a comedian and panelist, in the early 1990s.

The star continued to soar within the industry as he then branched out into presenting chat shows and was given his own show, So Graham Norton, until 2002.

But it was when BBC bosses recognised his unique talent in 2001, his career properly took off as they asked him to host Comic Relief, which marked him out to be one of the most sought after presenters of that time.

Fast-forward six years and the married presenter hosted his own TV show titled The Graham Norton Show, which attracted a host of high profile celebrities including Tom Cruise, Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett.

But now Graham is the face of the return of the game show Wheel Of Fortune.

Speaking about hosting the show he explained to OK!: "With Wheel Of Fortune, it’s a tried-and-tested formula. That’s what gave me the confidence to say yes – the game is really strong. I think even people who haven’t actually seen the show think they have. The wheel is iconic. It’s weird, it’s like it’s in our DNA – people are born knowing about Wheel Of Fortune."