Tore Strømøy breaks silence on NRK exit and new stage tour

Tore Strømøy, the veteran Norwegian broadcaster best known for Tore på Sporet, has opened up about the fallout from his 2024 departure from NRK and his upcoming solo stage show, 30 år på sporet, Dagbladet reports.

Speaking to the newspaper in Oslo, the 66-year-old described the period since leaving NRK as deeply difficult, admitting he remains nervous about public appearances. “I tend to do things I’m actually afraid of, like this,” he said. His exit followed the controversy over Ingen elsker Bamsegutt, the 2023 NRK documentary about Jan-Egil “Bamsegutt” Granfoss, which omitted Granfoss’s 1991 conviction for child sexual abuse—a fact Strømøy had disclosed to editors but was excluded from the final cut.

NRK later retracted the series, acknowledging “serious errors in judgment,” and its director-general issued a public apology. Strømøy, who had spent 38 years at the broadcaster, said he was abruptly dismissed by a regional editor without clear explanation. “It’s brutal when your entire working life is ripped away,” he told Dagbladet.

His new show, a 15-date tour launching this autumn, will blend personal reflections with behind-the-scenes stories from his career. “You can’t lie,” he said of the production’s tone. “Once you start lying, you’re lost.” While admitting stage fright, he added, “Once you begin, it always works out.”

Strømøy called Ingen elsker Bamsegutt “perhaps the most important thing I’ve ever worked on,” despite the scandal. He insisted NRK’s editorial choices—not his own reporting—fueled the backlash: “We all knew the conviction would come out. It always does.”