Hannah Waddingham won herself a legion of new fans when she fronted this year’s Eurovision Song Contest – but it turns out there was one part of hosting the show she found especially difficult.
On Monday, the Olivier-winning star of Ted Lasso and Game Of Thrones swung by Kelly Clarkson’s US talk show to discuss, among other things, hosting Eurovision 2023.
When asked by the Since U Been Gone singer – who previously co-presented America’s short-lived equivalent of Eurovision – how she’d found the experience, Hannah said it had been “insane” and “quite overwhelming”.
“I’d never worked with an in-ear doo-dah. I am not the person for that,” she admitted.
Kelly then admitted she often finds herself staring into space on camera when someone speaks to her via an earpiece, Hannah agreed, joking: “It’s like you’re trying to work out who’s farted.”
“It’s just, it’s not good,” Hannah added. “I had to stop myself going, ‘sorry, 180 million people – what?!’. Awful.”
Eurovision returned to the UK for the first time in 25 years earlier this month, where Liverpool hosted the competition on behalf of last year’s champions, Ukraine.
The 2023 event set a new ratings record for the BBC, with an average of 9.9 million UK viewers and a peak of 11 million tuning in to watch the Grand Final.
In the end, former winner Loreen made Eurovision history when she bagged her second win in Liverpool, storming ahead thanks to her song Tattoo, with Sweden now being the country with the joint-highest number of wins.
Watch Hannah’s Kelly Clarkson appearance in the video below: