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Presenter's three-year deal with the BBC rumoured to be worth £7.5m
Graham Norton; don't be rude
Norton: 'I'm overpaid, but it's rude to ask'
Graham Norton has admitted that he and other TV stars are overpaid, but said it was "rude" to have their salaries publicised.
"We are overpaid, absolutely, but to have your salary publicised, that's just rude," he told the Daily Telegraph's Tim Walker.
"I'm happy to admit we are paid too much, when you think about it, but why should people know the exact figures? It's not right. I mean, we just don't talk about how much we're paid - I'm referring to people in general - we don't talk about what we're paid."
He added: "People keep their salaries private, so why is it any different if you are on the TV? Television pays big fees, some would say ridiculously big, but let's leave it there. Why go into the details? As I say, it's rude."
Norton, whose three-year deal with the BBC is rumoured to be worth £7.5m, was at the centre of attention last week over speculation that he would take over Paul O'Grady's Channel 4 show.
O'Grady was reportedly on the point of walking out over the size of the pay cut proposed for himself and a budget cut of 50% for the show, and was considering a move to SKY1 when his Channel 4 contract runs out at the end of this year.
Although Norton's last BBC1 show, Totally Saturday, flopped, his late-night chat show moves to the channel next month, and his business partner, Graham Stuart, co-owner with the presenter of production company So Television, said: "From our point of view, So Television is preparing to take Graham's talk show from BBC2 to BBC1. That is what we are focused on. We see that as a long-term project."
