Friday night will see Claudia Winkleman step in to host Graham Norton’s Friday night chat show – but why is The Traitors host stepping in?

Claudia Winkleman is stepping in for Graham Norton on his BBC talk show tonight. The penultimate episode in the series will see The Traitors host welcome Chris Pratt, Toby Jones, Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Rob Beckett to the red sofa.

But where is Graham Norton and why is Claudia taking over? Earlier this month, Graham announced his planned time off, when he told viewers he’d be taking a one-week break from the show as he toured Australia.

The announcement was made while he had Claudia as a guest on the sofa. “Claudia does have another little job coming up,” he explained. “At the end of this series I’m popping off to do a tour of Australia and my seat is going to be filled for one week only by none other than Claudia Winkleman.” Claudia then joked: “I apologise in advance.” As well as hosting The Traitors, Claudia also hosts BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing alongside Tess Daly.

It’s not the first time Claudia has ‘replaced’ Graham. In 2021, she took over from his BBC Radio 2 Saturday morning show. Speaking on the appointment at the time, Claudia said: “I’m not often speechless but the chance to be with the wonderful Radio 2 listeners every Saturday has left me, quite frankly, gobsmacked.”

Claudia is stepping in for Graham on Friday night ( 
Image:
PA)

Graham’s visit to Australia comes as he’s headed Down Under in ahead of his Australian live tour. The star will be visiting Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne throughout March, for An Evening with Graham Norton. The show sees Graham share fun stories and career highlights with the audience, before taking part in a Q&A session.

This means Graham will also be away for the final episode, on Friday, March 7. The show will feature a compilation of highlights from the recent series, featuring a host of stars including Demi Moore, Timothée Chalamet, Cher, Denzel Washington, Nicole Kidman, Dwayne Johnson, Zoe Saldaña and Hugh Grant.

Reacting to the announcement on social media, one fan penned: “Been looking forward to this ever since it was announced, Claudia’s gonna ace this,” as another wrote: “The queeeeeeeen.” Another excitedly wrote: “Looking forward to it.”

“rachel chinouriri and claudia, oh i am tuned innnnn,” wrote a fourth excited fan while others were calling for Claudia to become a guest host on Lorraine when she was unavailable.