Claudia Winkleman has confirmed she will not return for a second season of her self-titled BBC chatshow, The Claudia Winkleman Show, which aired in March to lukewarm reviews and modest ratings. Winkleman admitted, "I was just too nervous to enjoy it," though the decision may also reflect broader cuts at the corporation. The show filled the slot while The Graham Norton Show was on hiatus, but failed to replicate Norton's success.
The challenge of following Graham Norton
Norton's hosting style, honed over nearly two decades, combines warmth, cheeky irreverence, and sharp conversational stewardship, keeping guests engaged with the help of a well-stocked bar. Winkleman, by contrast, struggled on a gloomy set with the audience positioned awkwardly close. Conversations drifted, and she indulged in hyperbolic praise, such as telling Tom Allen after a mildly funny gag, "That's the best thing anybody's ever said." While she might have found her rhythm in a second series, the risk of another critical drubbing was deemed too high for a presenter still riding high on The Traitors.
Female hosts and the chatshow curse
Winkleman is not alone. In 2006, Davina McCall's self-titled chatshow was panned and cancelled after one series. Lily Allen and Charlotte Church also hosted short-lived shows where their lack of experience showed. The common denominator is gender: the late-night chatshow has long been a male stronghold. In the US, Johnny Carson, Larry King, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel dominated. In the UK, Michael Parkinson, Russell Harty, Terry Wogan, Jonathan Ross, Alan Carr, and Graham Norton ruled. The only woman to thrive was Caroline Aherne's Mrs Merton, a comic character who roasted guests in faux-naif style, famously asking Bernard Manning, "Who do you vote for now that Hitler's dead?"
Podcasts: the new threat to traditional chatshows
Beyond gender bias, the chatshow format faces an existential threat from podcasts. Previously, A-listers with projects to promote would appear on The Graham Norton Show or The Jonathan Ross Show. Now, video podcasts offer longer, more in-depth conversations. Male hosts like Joe Rogan, Steven Bartlett, Louis Theroux, and Romesh Ranganathan dominate, but women are gaining ground. Davina McCall, once a chatshow failure, now hosts the hit interview series Begin Again, about midlife reinvention, featuring guests like Fatboy Slim, Gisèle Pelicot, Richard E Grant, and Gillian Anderson. This suggests Winkleman could succeed with a different format: no live audience, no giant sofa, and a move away from traditional television.
