Do politics play the part in the JESC as they do in the main ESC? My main concern would be, for example, seeing a Russian kid consistently booed, as we saw with the Tolmachevy sisters in Copenhagen (who of course have won JESC.)
Brilliant news. Not too big but bigger than Malmö Arena. Interesting to see that they mention that the Tele2 Arena will "play a part" in the Grand Final.
The 'Big Five' countries plus the host country will appear in the Semi Final in which they vote, after changes agreed last week by the EBU. I think this is good news and will improve the prominence of the six songs which pre-qualify each year. Up until now, they've been glimpsed during the semi finals but only perform once in the final. It might also improve the appeal of the Semi finals in countries that pre-qualify.
Makes much more sense, will definately add value to the Semis too. Let them perform at the end in place of the interval act, it wont add much to the running time that way.
That's an excellent suggestion. The intervals at the Semis have been less than impressive IMO. Would avoid any confusion about which countries cannot be voted for too. However, there are some reports that it will be replays of clips from the dress rehearsal rather than a full performance...
Makes much more sense, will definately add value to the Semis too. Let them perform at the end in place of the interval act, it wont add much to the running time that way.
But isn't the interval act when most broadcasters have their commercial breaks?
A segment of the interval act yes, can still be engineered to fit, with some Green Room filler. The window is 15mins for voting so three songs at C 240secs each (includes Postcard) still leaves 3 mins, which could be enhanced for a comm break by cutting out some of the intro froth. ORF really squeezed the qualifiers announcement, so the show with Big Six addition would be much better. I suspect that the removal of the two SF interval acts would help the economics of the event too. Would also help domestically here by removing the opportunity for Parochial opts too.
RS
Rob_Schneider
It makes sense. We had two automatic qualifiers with two fairly good songs finish with the first nil points since Jemini this year and pretty mediocre showings from France, Spain and ourselves generally. Also, Russia's second place has kind of killed off the "everybody hates X" argument, let's be honest.
The interval filler during the semis is very hit and miss so you either have to watch crap or miss something really good during a BBC opt out. I would advise the BBC to use this change as an opportunity to just have the EBU feed run for the main show with Scott commentating on his own and put the opt out material, the VTs, chats with Paul Jordan etc in a 30min Xtra Factor type programme afterwards, hosted by Mel where she can get away with being annoying.
Interview filler being hit and miss is all part of the fun, not that the BBC let us see it. I'm really not too sure about the big 5+1 performing in the semi-finals - the last thing any Eurovision Song Contest programme needs is more songs!
Interview filler being hit and miss is all part of the fun, not that the BBC let us see it. I'm really not too sure about the big 5+1 performing in the semi-finals - the last thing any Eurovision Song Contest programme needs is more songs!
It's called the Eurovision "SONG" contest, of course it's about songs
