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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Entertainment
Sandra Mallon

Graham Norton admits he feared TV bosses would find someone better if he gave up hosting Eurovision

TV star Graham Norton has admitted he didn’t want to give up commentating on the Eurovision Song Contest – in case they found someone else better than him.

The Cork native revealed he would never ditch commentating on the song contest, in case BBC bosses found someone better.

Speaking on Zoe Ball’s Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2, Graham said: "I didn’t want to give up doing the commentary gig because what if the person was better than me and then.. oh I’ve lost my favourite job so I love, love, love doing the commentary so I didn’t want to give it up."

READ MORE - Marty Whelan delighted to see Graham Norton host Eurovision Song Contest 2023

Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham will co-host this year's Eurovision Song Contest, alongside Alesha Dixon and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina in Liverpool.

The presenting trio will front the two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May, with Graham Norton joining them for the grand final on Saturday, 13 May, it was announced last week.

Returning favourite Graham Norton has been announced to present this year's Eurovision UK live final alongside new co-hosts (BBC/So Television/Christopher Baines)

He continued: "I don’t really know what’s happening but I think I’m sort of topping and tailing the show on stage with Hannah and Julia."

Norton also revealed the words of advice from the late Terry Wogan, who he took over from back in 2016. The author continues to do a ‘Toast for Terry’ at the Eurovision just before song nine to pay tribute to the late star.

He explained: "The thing is, so Terry when I got the job, he said, ‘look I’ve only one [piece of] advice for you – don’t have a drink before song nine’. But of course when Terry was doing it, there was only about 18 songs.. 12 songs. Now there are 27. Song nine is quite early," he said laughing.

"So pace yourself…. But because of him, we do raise a glass of whatever, it doesn’t have to be booze, at song nine."

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