Junior Eurovision

Indeed, if you may remember the BBC got bored and went away from the show before the credits had finished, all those EBU ident fans were disappointed

And Pop Idol Results is starting just 1 minute late due to problems out of their hands, so what's your problem! If you're going to ITV-bash then at least come up with something that is actually true!

The reason for my post (if I must explain myself) is that ITV 1's Saturday lineup is so poor recently. For example Pop Idol, more Pop Idol a repeat of Who wants to be a Millionaire, and Single ("A drama series starring Michelle Collins" - ITV.co.uk)

Its just not my cup of tea, and neither is Junior Eurovision - I like the grown up version though! Terry Wogan makes it watchable, I can see why the BBC didn't want to show the junior version.

Oh well, thats my moan over and done with...

Pop Idol gets the viewers. Millionnaire AREN'T repeats, they are new each week, then repeated on itv2. And Millionnaire is still popular.
As for single, they are trying for something new. They need to bridge the gap between pop idol/millionnaire and the premiership, without endless it'll be allright on the nights!

Although I haven't watched 'Single' I will probably tune in to this new drama where a man and woman crossdress as each other for some reason. Drama on a Saturday is quite alright, but it needs to be the right type. Comedy may be better suited for weekends.

I thoroughly enjoyed Junior Eurovision. The songs were cheesy, the children hyperactive and Tara and Mark were surprisingly good. Although I felt that Mark was overdoing the 'eurovision is naff' comments ("If you're still with us... why?!") I thought they both did a very good job and there was certainly some chemistry between them that made it quite amusing. Better suited to Junior Eurovision than Terry Wogan IMO.

Well done also to ITV by sticking with it until the end and not crashing out to get Pop Idol in on time (it wasn't exactly late anyway). How silly of that girl to announce the results in a false manner. I bet her master will be whipping her.

I will definately be tuning in next year. As a fan of the 'adult' Eurovision, I found this just as enjoyable. It wasn't spoiled by ITV, Tara and Mark, naff songs or anything else. It was almost as good as the regular show and next year it's being held here, so I think (provided it got good ratings) we can half expect quite a bit of investment from ITV into making it a brilliant show.

It will be interesting to see whether, if the ratings were phenomally high, the BBC will try and poach it next year?

I only watched the results of it, but I have to say that Mark and Tara's commentary was rather good which was suprising, to many people, but these two get on very well. If you watched RI:SE late last year she started becoming a regular and their bond was very good, some people even suspected that they were going out. It must be the first thing he has done for ITV which wasn't that bad.

I think most people (including myself) were expecting it to be trash because it's on ITV1 - but at the end of the day it's been put together by the EBU and evidently to the same standard as the regular Eurovision Song Contest.

No comments about the scoreboard but I liked it. Ok the colours were a bit loud but the way it was a built in leaderboard was good.

Those kids in the audience seemed more bothered about waving at the camera on the crane panning across them than the acts themselves.

Getting a british interval act was a good idea for us at least, although Busted were one man down. I suppose this proves that their appearance on CD:UK this lunchtime was recorded from the previous week

I'm not entirely sure what the full effects of sinus problems are, but surely Charlie could at least have stood there and pretended the play his guitar, even if he didn't sing...?

Ah well, it was quite a good performance from both groups so I suppose it doesn't matter.

Those ITV1 country dogs were awful - and was it me or did one of them not completely cover the EBU/DR one underneath? (Or was there a rogue letter on the ITV1 gfx?) The colour schemes were almost unreadable on some songs.

It looked like ITV1 were playing in their own opt-in/out titles to get to the breaks - at least once there was some timing nastiness and we re-joined early (or Denmark carried on too long?) Also was a unilateral sting used to get the phone details off cleanly?

The direction / camera work was not a patch on recent mainstream Eurovisions - and thank goodness Mark and TPT commentated over the presenters otherwise it would have been totally unwatchable.

That said - much of what Mark and TPT were reading sounded horribly scripted. Even if Terry is scripted - he sounds far more spontaneous and adlibby than TPT... (She seemed to have difficulties reading...)

Yes at one point the ITV graphic couldn't completely obscure "FYR Macedonia" and the last a was hanging outside the box.

Generally a good show. Mark and Tara were alright although some of the bitchy comments weren't very fair, I mean these are just kids afterall.

As for Terry Wogan... He needs to take retirement now. I don't understand why everyone thinks his commentary is funny, he seems to repeat the same jokes every year, and they were pretty cheap to begin with.

Wash your mouth out young man. Eurovision wouldn't be the same without Terry Wogan.

As for the Junior Eurovision Contest, fair play to the EBU, it did work even though it was like watching the Minipops all over again.

I found Mark's comments funny but Tara was talking utter drivel as usual and both of them should have shut up as the scores were being announced. Apart from that I must admit that ITV1's coverage was fantastic. There I've said it now!

Caught it from the UK entrant onwards - and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

The commercial breaks actually work alot better than the normal drivel you get from the hosts, but why wasn't it in two languages. Considering only two countries sang in English, having it all in English just wasn't right.

So how does the funding work for this, considering ITV1 broadcast it rather than the BBC.

Also, didn't they say next years was in the UK - must be done on some kind of bid/bribe process rather than the winners hosting.

PS: I thought Mark Durden Smith and even TPT were quite good - especially Mark with his constant references to Wogan - what most people at home were thinking.