[JAS84]

The set in the Liverpool Arena looks amazing.

It was incorrect to say that it's the "first time another nation has hosted for the winner" - as the UK have done it four times before on behalf of someone else.

I thought that. But I think on those past occasions it was just a case of the winner not hosting the following year, rather than the UK doing it on the winners behalf which is what it’s been sold as this time. This time Ukraine is literally at the heart of the contest.

This is definitely not the first time the UK has hosted for the winner, and on one occasion another country even did that.
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List of Eurovision Song Contest host cities - Wikipedia
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1960 - NTS in Netherlands declined to host for financial reasons having hosted the 1958 contest. UK was 2nd place in 1959 so was invited to host instead.
1963 - RTF in France declined to host for financial reasons having hosted the 1959 and 1961 contests. 2nd and 3rd placed countries Monaco and Luxembourg also declined, so they invited the BBC to take over.
1972 - Tele Monte Carlo in Monaco couldn't find a suitable venue, so the UK hosted on their behalf.
1974 - Luxembourg won twice in a row, and RTL couldn't afford to host again, so once again the BBC were invited to host instead.
1980 - IBA in Israel declined to host, having done so the previous year. Spain's RTVE and the BBC both declined, so it ended up being hosted by NOS of the Netherlands.

[Jon]

I think you’ve missed my point. Which is that and I’m assuming it’s not been sold as the UK hosting on behalf of the previous winner.

[aaron_scotland]

Though amusingly, even in the UK the BBC doesn't get a sponsorship free feed as they just cover the logo with a blue square, you can tell as it isnt quite the same blue.

They do, but presumably it'll just be clean graphics but not clean recorded sections (VTs in old terminology) Having two different graphics outputs is a lot easier than editing and playing dual versions of every clip (it's what BBC News has done for years) .

In recent years the BBC gallery have run their own credits and not taken the ones from the main production. Not only does this enable them to omit the massive lost of company names but also add their own production staff doing the domestic output

Im fairly sure your mistaken and they manually cover up the graphics during the live show.

EDIT: As far as Im aware theres only 2 versions of the show, one with all the sponsors and blanks in the graphics to put telephone numbers in and another one called RoW (Rest of the World) which has slightly more sponsorship and the app link rather than telephone numbers.

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In recent years the BBC gallery have run their own credits and not taken the ones from the main production. Not only does this enable them to omit the massive lost of company names but also add their own production staff doing the domestic output

In the credits of SF1 you actually could see them leaving a little bit of a gap after the first slide so the UK gallery had time to insert the cover up.

They do this with the sponsor logo on the tranisitions too, So it will require the BBC using the Jury Show rehearsals to note down the times, or they are provided by EBU and being very quick on the mixer to put in the blank covers.

[Brekkie]

2.3m for the semi final, by far and away the highest rated semi final in UK history. Peak of 3.3m for the results. Did get beaten by IAC from 9pm onwards.

I was in the arena last night and by sheer luck (and I really do mean luck, I won two competitions!) I'm at semi 2 and the final. I cannot express how good the flag graphics on the stage and green room seating looked in the arena. You can see it behind the on screen graphics on TV but totally unobscured in person they looked electric.

Absolutely fantastic show in person, the stage is quite something. All of the acts sounded incredible in the room. Genuinely faultless show apart from a weird loud and repeating sound glitch during one of the Alesha interview bits, don't know if you could hear it on the show.

I know TV audiences aren't what they used to be but I thought they'd be good for 4m given the publicity.   That figure suggests they won't remain on BBC1 next year.

[Kim Wexler’s Ponytail]

I  think for the majority of the uk Eurovision is still, and always will be the Saturday night final.  Even with it on uk soild i still have zero interest in the semi finals.

[Happy2001]

Ratings for Semi Final One across Europe:
Finland: 1.264 Million (78% Share)
The Netherlands: 2.124 Million (40% Share)
Italy: 1.89 Million (8.6% Share)
Germany: 590,000

[Stooky Bill]

They do, but presumably it'll just be clean graphics but not clean recorded sections (VTs in old terminology) Having two different graphics outputs is a lot easier than editing and playing dual versions of every clip (it's what BBC News has done for years) .

In recent years the BBC gallery have run their own credits and not taken the ones from the main production. Not only does this enable them to omit the massive lost of company names but also add their own production staff doing the domestic output

Im fairly sure your mistaken and they manually cover up the graphics during the live show.

EDIT: As far as Im aware theres only 2 versions of the show, one with all the sponsors and blanks in the graphics to put telephone numbers in and another one called RoW (Rest of the World) which has slightly more sponsorship and the app link rather than telephone numbers.

---

In the credits of SF1 you actually could see them leaving a little bit of a gap after the first slide so the UK gallery had time to insert the cover up.

They do this with the sponsor logo on the tranisitions too, So it will require the BBC using the Jury Show rehearsals to note down the times, or they are provided by EBU and being very quick on the mixer to put in the blank covers.

I'm not mistaken - the EBU is providing a 'non-commercial' feed of the shows, known by the EBU as the clean. Though how this differs from the main I don't know (I'll try and watch then for comparison later in the week).

There are several feeds of the Main for resilience so the BBC production team have them available as outside sources too so they still have to be ready to blank that if need be. Yes they have the rehearsals to know where the sponsorship bits will be. The voting graphics were played out on Monday so that every broadcaster could line up their telephone number graphics 

As you say there's also the Rest of the World feed. As far as I know this and the clean are sent out as unilaterals just to those who need them, but the main feeds are fed out via satellite as multilaterals to every member

Note - this is the case this year, whether theres been a commercial free version in other years I don't know.

[JAS84]

I think you’ve missed my point. Which is that and I’m assuming it’s not been sold as the UK hosting on behalf of the previous winner.

The two 1970s cases were the winning country's broadcaster asking the BBC to replace them, which isn't in itself that different to this year. I think the difference this time is that Ukraine didn't choose not to host it, they didn't voluntarily forfeit the hosting rights, it was deemed unsafe to have the ESC in a warzone, so they invited the runners up, the UK, to host in their place.

[rxo979]

Having been at the afternoon rehearsal yesterday it was fascinating to watch the cameras in action whilst watching from the floor and then seeing the shots on television, didn't see a missed cue all evening.

Before the show started the audience were told to remain silence during the opening video and the on stage performance, but when Paul O'Grady appeared on the screens the crowd did react. The set itself looks amazing in person.

[Brekkie]

Talking of that I do think the postcards have been nicely done. Only thing I thought a bit off last night was to have the first interval act effectively be a tribute to Ukraine and then barely a couple of minutes later switch to a pop act promoting their new single and back catalogue - especially as that was then followed by what felt like half an hour of filler so holding back the second interval act till a nit later would have made that flow better.

Not sure if it's the vote verification taking longer but they used to have 20 acts in the semi final and usually keep the show to around the 2 hr mark but now have 5 less performances but the show is 10-15 minutes longer.