Norton earned £2.5m from his production firm in 2011

Chat-show host and comedian, Graham Norton received £2

Chat-show host and comedian, Graham Norton received £2.5 million (€3 million) in fees and dividends from his production firm last year.

New figures show the Irish BBC chat show host received £2.1 million in fees and an additional £400,000 in dividends from London-based So Television Ltd last year.

Norton’s boost in fortunes – where his fee income from the firm increased by 38 per cent from £1.5 million to £2.1 million last year – coincided with the multi-award winning TV presenter securing the prime-time Friday night chat show slot on the BBC taking over from Jonathan Ross.

The fees received last year by 49-year-old Norton dwarfs fees received by any of Ireland’s best-known TV personalities.

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Norton’s So Television Ltd firm produces The Graham Norton Show, and the figures show its pretax profits increased by 42 per cent from £861,741 to £1.2 million last year.

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan

Gordon Deegan is a contributor to The Irish Times