As the show’s primary market on linear broadcast is the U.K., TikTok’s aim is to broaden the IP’s accessibility globally. Additionally, since the linear audience is predominantly older (45+), our strategy seeks to engage new and younger audiences to keep the brand’s viewership growing. In short, our target audience is global, younger viewers (18–24-year-olds).

Key strategies include repackaging and elevating moments from the program’s extensive 31-season archive using bespoke editing, sound effects, and dynamic subtitles—ensuring the content feels native to the platform. Our approach always begins with a detailed breakdown of quarterly activity across various entertainment verticals. Our team then dives into Norton’s archive to ensure the right content is paired with the moment.

In addition to this pre-planning, we keep our finger on the pulse of trending topics and talent, often making last-minute changes to schedules to maximize reach and performance—such as posting a clip of Vanessa Kirby when the cast of the new Fantastic Four film was announced.

The Graham Norton Show’s TikTok output is highly reactive to current trends and events in film, television, music, and sports. Some key examples include:

•  This touching Friends moment published following the passing of Matthew Perry, amassing nearly 15 million views. 
• Using this bite-size (no pun intended!) moment to jump on the #girldinner trend
• Leaning into the huge popularity of Barbie with archive of Margot Robbie (5.1M views), and Ryan Gosling (3.2M views), and Kate McKinnon (1.7M views)
• Celebrating the release of The Tortured Poets Department (3.1M views)
• Getting hyped for Dune Part 2 with Austin Butler (7M views) and Zendaya (4M views)

While roughly one third of output is ‘evergreen’, the other two-thirds are in someway reactive to output, even tangentially, to maximize SEO, like releasing Mark Hamill Star Wars interview content during the release of the Disney+ series Star Wars: Ahsoka, despite Mark not appearing in the show, or Naomi Campbell content to celebrate Fashion Week.

Unlike many American talk show competitors such as Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, The Graham Norton show does not have access to talent for original digital output, behind-the-scenes skits, or games with the host. Instead, our strategy relies on repackaging Norton’s vast archive and leveraging talent by reacting to trending celebrities and topics (For example, Adam Sandler’s style evolution to celebrate the release of ‘You Are SO Not Invited to my Bat Mitzvah!’ or Jessica Biel’s cheat meals as part of the viral ‘girl dinner’ trend). Despite the SAG-AFTRA strikes that stifled performance across most talk shows between July through October, The Graham Norton Show’s TikTok increased output from 8 to 30 posts per month, effectively filling a gap in the market for new entertainment content. 

Results 

Overall, we have smashed all our objectives for the brand channel - and in just three years The Graham Norton Show has become the largest UK talk show account on the platform, with 2.9million followers and 139.3million likes.