Eurovision 2021 - Netherlands - NPO/AVROTROS/NOS

My one gripe from tonight, is why is it a repeat of TOTP2 from 2007. Has there not being a more recent special? It might be a stretch but how difficult would it have been to make up a new compilation show while in lockdown?

A more recent compilation would’ve just had the same performances though given its TOTP2. I expect it was this or nothing given we’ve just had four and a half hours of essentially Eurovision compilations.

Have the BBC released the full results of tonights vote. Abba was a lazy and inevitable choice really for the win so be interesting to see how the more recent songs placed.

I wondered whether it might be to hide a caption at the bottom of the screen? (In a similar way to how the voting numbers were blurred in the 00s and beyond clips, but presumably a 90s caption would be even larger and clumsier to blur)

....but am I barking up the wrong tree?

I saw Steve Hocking credited as the contingency producer. Cue a slightly forced joke about Blue Peter editors and issues with competition votes.

The Gina G sequence was not cropped - whilst the 1996 contest was a 4:3 SD show all of the song performances were shot 16:9 letterbox (so were ~430 line resolution rather than 576 lines). (This was when 16:9 production was beginning to be a thing, and there was some European - not just EU - money around for 16:9 production...)

Blowing 430 lines up to 1080 would have looked worse than YouTube I fear - so they treated it the same as the other 4:3 SD performances width-wise and masked the top and bottom rather than leaving the original black borders.

I don't think voting began till the following year.


If they cropped it to 16:9 I think they should have left the black bars in really and shown it as it was. I think that was the year they tried to brand it as Euro Song 96 and were trying to move the contest kicking and screaming into the mid-90s.

The year Ireland entered My Lovely Horse.

How come Graham “Mr” Norton was the only presenter/commentator interviewed this evening? Excuse my ignorance, is he well known across Europe or is there some fascination with the UK?

He is, Not only is his show on in various countries and places, His Youtube reach is huge, because of the Hollywood guests he has on, Not only the official bits that the BBC put up but all the clips put up by others.

Yes - many European broadcasters show The Graham Norton Show (SVT in Sweden do for instance) so he is recognised worldwide. It gets a conveyor belt of A-list Hollywood guests that many other equivalent chat shows across Europe simply don't (and that's why they buy it). And as others have said - the YouTube / Social reach is much wider than the UK.

In many ways Graham's the biggest 'name' associated with Eurovision across Europe other than former performers like Abba and Celine Dion. Not that many other national broadcasters have a commentator with as big a national reputation, presenting a major TV chat show, let alone an international one like Graham.

Whilst the UK may not always be thought of as taking the contest seriously as a country, the reality is that the BBC having Sir Terry, and then Graham as their national commentators is seen by other European broadcasters as the BBC taking the actual broadcast of the contest very seriously.

He's often been the only featured commentator on previous contests - such as when he had a confetti fired into his commentary booth in Copenhagen 2014 :