Have heard that the UK reveal might be tomorrow. The Rylan suggestion wont go away. There was some suggestion floating a few days ago that Josh James (nee Dubovie) might be given another shot too.
Cox is already gone from the Three coverage, replaced last year by Ana Matronic who, whilst clearly new to the whole circus that is Eurovision, actually made an effort to talk about it, the songs, and performers, a little more seriously - and actually didn't do too bad a job!
Have heard that the UK reveal might be tomorrow. The Rylan suggestion wont go away. There was some suggestion floating a few days ago that Josh James (nee Dubovie) might be given another shot too.
Josh has denied it (lord knows why anyone thought that was going to happen) but he claims to know who it is.
I suspect ITV will get their hands on Eurovision at some point, and if X Factor's still going at that point - the winner will represent the UK.
I'd be VERY surprised if that happened. I'm sure the BBC are very happy with Eurovision and the ratings it gets for the cost of the licence (and entry costs of sending a delegation) AIUI it is incredibly good value for 3 hours of Saturday night entertainment. Why would they want to stop doing it? ITV would only get it if the BBC declined - and I don't see that happening any time soon.
I think if the BBC continue to send acts that suggest they're not taking it seriously, there could be a case for ITV taking it over. ITV could enhance the value for money by stretching it out across several months with an X Factor style programme (or even, as suggested above, The X Factor itself).
If Simon Cowell decided he wanted it, he has enough influence within the industry to at least open the debate for it changing stations.
A Syco show would easily bridge the gap between Eurovision being seen as a serious contest and the lack of credibility.
I suspect ITV will get their hands on Eurovision at some point, and if X Factor's still going at that point - the winner will represent the UK.
I'd be VERY surprised if that happened. I'm sure the BBC are very happy with Eurovision and the ratings it gets for the cost of the licence (and entry costs of sending a delegation) AIUI it is incredibly good value for 3 hours of Saturday night entertainment. Why would they want to stop doing it? ITV would only get it if the BBC declined - and I don't see that happening any time soon.
I think if the BBC continue to send acts that suggest they're not taking it seriously, there could be a case for ITV taking it over. ITV could enhance the value for money by stretching it out across several months with an X Factor style programme (or even, as suggested above, The X Factor itself).
If Simon Cowell decided he wanted it, he has enough influence within the industry to at least open the debate for it changing stations.
A Syco show would easily bridge the gap between Eurovision being seen as a serious contest and the lack of credibility.
As said above the BBC would have to pull out of the contest for ITV to ever have a chance of picking it up: there's no outbidding involved with the EBU, they'll offer it to the previous year's broadcaster. And the BBC's certainly not going to drop something that brings them huge ratings for barely any money at all.
And also explains their reluctance to send anyone of any value, talent or capability.
RS
Rob_Schneider
I suppose the only way to force that would be to see an end to the Big 5 rules. A year or two of having to screen the ESC on primetime Saturday night BBC1 with no UK interest would quickly cause a rethink!
I still don't see why we don't send major current acts in this country when other nations do... and yes, I'm part of the "Send Adele" mob - just because everything the woman touches seems to turn to gold; I actually can't stand Adele! But then, I'm one of the few people who didn't enjoy Terry Wogan's commentary and would watch the Irish feed from RTE instead.
It's about time Eurovision came home again, it'd be a huge boost for the UK to host a major event which isn't sport-related.
I do wish at times we could at least follow Sweden's example to a certain extent like they do with Melodifestivalen. I watched it last night and it just seems to be so well put together with the selection of acts, and also the acts themselves actually being quite decent.