Graham Norton changed his answer when asked for the worst guest he’s ever had on show
In all his years of presenting The Graham Norton Show there have been hundreds of guests on the sofa, or those little spread out chairs they had during the pandemic.
While there's been plenty of fun and hijinks on the show over the years some poor famous face has to take the dubious accolade of being the 'worst' guest, and it has to be someone.
As is the nature of getting a plethora of guests on each week The Graham Norton Show goes on air, Graham's answer as to which guest least managed to impress has changed over the years.
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At first Norton said Robert De Niro was a rather ‘benign’ presence on the show, not managing to entertain Norton or the audience with a story that ended up on the cutting room floor.
"Last time he started telling a story – he went on and on," Norton explained at the Cheltenham Literature Festival a few years ago,
"We were all leaning in, willing it to be amazing... then he finally went, ‘why am I telling this?’ Nobody had an answer. We cut it."
However, Graham changed his answer to the 'worst guest' question when he was chatting about it at an event in Dublin to celebrate the launch of his novel, Forever Home.
The presenter was reportedly asked at the event about the worst guest he’d ever had on the show, prompting him to name a certain disgraced movie mogul.
His choice wasn't solely based on the fact he’s now in prison after being sentenced to 23 years for rape and sexual assault, though that probably had a part to play.
Norton explained: "I often talk around who my least favourite guest was, but now, someone reminded me, I have a really good answer to this now.
"It's Harvey Weinstein. He's in jail, so he gets the prize for the worst guest ever."
Norton described how Weinstein fired over emails saying he wanted to be on the chat show, which was already fully booked.
"He e-mailed back: 'What if I blah de blah de blah'. [I replied] 'No, the show is fully booked, blah de blah'," Norton continued.
"And he e-mailed back again, 'But I think...', and I just had to turn to my booker and say 'Can you please deal with this?'
"And at the time, I thought that sort of attitude, that kind of 'Oh no, I'm going on [the show]', that is what makes you a very good producer.
"But of course, now that we know what we know, that is what makes him a predator. It was that kind of weird, tunnel-vision thing.
"And it was sort of chilling in retrospect, because I was just laughing at those emails. But you realise 'Oh my God, that is an insight into how that man is'."
Weinstein's appearance on The Graham Norton Show was in 2015, where he was joined by David Tennant, Olivia Colman and Jessie J.
The host's encounter with Weinstein bumped De Niro off the 'worst guest' pedestal, which makes plenty of sense considering all De Niro had done was tell a vaguely boring story.
Topics: Graham Norton, BBC, TV and Film, Celebrity
Emily Brown