{"id":333752,"date":"2026-03-07T12:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333752\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T12:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T12:17:08","slug":"claudia-winklemans-chatshow-is-obviously-going-to-be-awful-or-is-it-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/333752\/","title":{"rendered":"Claudia Winkleman\u2019s chatshow is \u2018obviously going to be awful\u2019. Or is it? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cCompletely nerve-racking\u201d are not words that broadcasting executives will often enjoy hearing from the incoming presenters of high-profile shows. But when it\u2019s Claudia Winkleman<\/a> speaking about the \u201ctotal privilege\u201d of being given Graham Norton<\/a>\u2019s Friday-night slot on BBC<\/a> One for a spell this spring, a certain amount of self-deprecation is to be expected. It\u2019s part of her persona \u2013 and her likeability, too.<\/p>\n

The first seven-episode run of The Claudia Winkleman Show begins next week, and much is riding on its success. It makes me, a viewer with zero stake in the enterprise, nervous. Talent is only the starting point. What the host of a new chatshow in 2026 really needs is a quantity The Traitors UK presenter regularly sends in the direction of other people: enormous luck.<\/p>\n

The BBC is vulnerable to backlashes at every turn, and, even with the much-loved Winkleman at the helm, the UK press won\u2019t be shy of lambasting the broadcaster for any perceived misstep, no matter how tiny.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the wild fact that women don\u2019t often get to present shows like these. Incredibly, the last woman with her name above the door of a BBC One chatshow was Davina McCall, who fronted a short-lived, one-and-done series in 2006. If Winkleman\u2019s doesn\u2019t work, will another 20 years pass before another woman is allowed in the chair? It wouldn\u2019t surprise me.<\/p>\n

Chatshows are hard. They\u2019re not dead, as has been claimed for decades, but they are hard. The reasons for this have had more airings than The Late Late Show. The capacity of old-school television to draw huge names and elicit insights, revelations and other forms of TV gold from them just isn\u2019t what it used to be.<\/p>\n

With so many other direct-to-consumer platforms available, A-listers no longer have to yield a scintilla of control. They will go through the motions of a closely supervised promotion schedule, yes, but they won\u2019t race into some random studio ready and willing for a quasi-therapeutic conversation in which they lament the lifelong legacy of the distant relationship they had with their father when they were six.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s okay. I\u2019ve written before about how the \u201cgolden age\u201d of the chatshow is remembered more fondly than it deserves and, separately, how the deftness with which Norton weaves his particular magic in today\u2019s publicity climate should be talked about more.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Irishwoman Rachel Duffy has proven the truth at the heart of Traitors UKOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Claudia Winkleman Show is produced by So Television, the ITV-backed company that Norton founded with his executive producer, Graham Stuart. It has as much expertise and experience behind it as you can find. The show won\u2019t be live, but Winkleman\u2019s long record of spontaneous hilarity on live television is surely an asset. It will also have the advantage of going out at 10.40pm, unlike McCall\u2019s show, which was judged for not pulling in viewers in their sufficient millions in a peak-time 8pm slot.<\/p>\n

Still, making established chatshows sing is one thing. Launching a new one in the unforgiving landscape of 2020s television is another. Before Norton moved to Friday nights on BBC One he was able to hone his craft on BBC Two and, before that, on Channel 4. Winkleman, for all her years in broadcasting, is plunging into the deep end here.<\/p>\n

When she filled in for Norton on a once-off basis in February 2025, the result was fine, but no more than that. Mostly, her stint as a substitute presenter served as a reminder of how accomplished he is at what he does.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Graham Norton Show is 50 minutes of chatshow alchemy delivered with aplombOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Sliding into someone else\u2019s armchair is always going to invite comparison, of course. The trick to making The Claudia Winkleman Show fly will be to give it a format and personality all of its own. And, so far, we know little.<\/p>\n

There will be a green sofa, not a red one. There will be audience interaction each week, which can be hit and miss. Next Friday the guests are Jennifer Saunders, Jeff Goldblum, Vanessa Williams and Tom Allen. Saunders is a comedy heroine, and the other three seem like good eggs, too, though if you were trotting along to The Graham Norton Show in person and that was the line-up, you might be disappointed. Luckily, reports from the filming point to some scene-stealing dog content. This seems like a smart inclusion, and not just because Winkleman is poised to present Crufts.<\/p>\n

The general message sent is that this is not a show that will live or die on the starriness of its guests. Instead it will hang on the wit, warmth and energy of Winkleman herself. But seven weeks is not a long time to get comfortable in any gig, and it remains to be seen whether the skills she displays on other shows will translate into this one.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s her feeling about it all? \u201cI\u2019m obviously going to be awful, that goes without saying, but I\u2019m over the moon they\u2019re letting me try,\u201d she says. It\u2019s a classic pre-emptive strike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCompletely nerve-racking\u201d are not words that broadcasting executives will often enjoy hearing from the incoming presenters of high-profile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1578,36379,4177,93,30387,61,60,153568,7241,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-333752","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-claudia-winkleman","10":"tag-davina-mccall","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-graham-norton","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-jennifer-saunders","16":"tag-laura-slattery","17":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}