{"id":430472,"date":"2026-05-16T10:59:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430472\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T10:59:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T10:59:19","slug":"eurovision-graham-norton-reveals-when-he-plans-to-retire-from-bbc-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430472\/","title":{"rendered":"Eurovision: Graham Norton reveals when he plans to retire from BBC show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Eurovision<\/a> Song Contest host Graham Norton<\/a> has revealed that his retirement from fronting the BBC<\/a>\u2019s coverage of the competition\u2019s grand final will depend on his continence. <\/p>\n

The beloved 63-year-old Irish presenter, who replaced the late Terry Wogan as the voice of the contest in 2008 after his 35-year stint, said the show\u2019s gruelling schedule, which sees stars film for four hours straight, doesn\u2019t allow for \u201cwee breaks\u201d throughout the lengthy broadcast. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen will I retire? I will see what happens,\u201d Norton told The Guardian<\/a>. \u201cI can still hold my wee in for four hours,\u201d he added. \u201cSo, I think my retirement will be based on my bladder.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 grand final<\/a> takes place tonight in Vienna, Austria, with the UK competing against favourites including Finland, Greece and Australia.<\/p>\n

Look Mum No Computer (real name Sam Battle) will perform his zany UK entry \u201cEins, Zwei, Drei\u201d, around halfway through the competition. <\/p>\n

As one of the \u201cBig Four\u201d countries that make the largest financial contributions to Eurovision, the UK is guaranteed a spot in the final along with France, Italy and Germany, and Austria thanks to its role as this year\u2019s host.<\/p>\n

Spain \u2013 the fifth country typically guaranteed a spot in the final due to its broadcaster making the largest financial contribution to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) \u2013 withdrew from this year\u2019s contest in protest over Israel\u2019s participation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"'You‘You don’t get wee breaks’: Norton on stage at the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final in 2023 (Getty)<\/p>\n

Last year, UK entry Remember Monday became the second British act in a row to be awarded nul points in the public vote after Olly Alexander suffered the same fate in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Norton said his biggest piece of advice for whoever replaces him to front the BBC\u2019s Eurovision coverage would be to find out which plane the UK\u2019s act is getting home and \u201cbe on a different one\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long time to spend with someone who\u2019s probably not very happy,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s only so many positives you can think up to say \u2013 and you\u2019ve probably said them all before you\u2019ve even checked in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent will be liveblogging the Eurovision 2026 grand final<\/a>. You can see which countries are through to the final so far here<\/a> before BBC coverage kicks off at 8pm. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-430472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}