22-02-2023, 11:02 AM
King Ken will have left Radio 2 by the time the contest takes place. I expect they will be looking for a replacement. Rylan would appear to be a good choice to me - he has an affiliation with Eurovision already, and already presents on Radio 2. The same could be said of Scott Mills on both counts.
Be interesting to see how it goes. I feel like having three presenters for the semi-finals and four presenters for the grand final is perhaps a bit 'overkill'. (Not unique to the 2023 contest, of course - plenty of recent contests have had three/four hosts.) I feel like if they were set on having four hosts, it would have been nice to have had a 50/50 split of UK/Ukrainian presenters, rather than the 75/25 split we've ended up with. Not massively sure about Alesha Dixon; she's got some live TV experience, certainly, but I don't think she'd've been at the top of my list of people in consideration to host one of the world's biggest live TV events. Similarly, Hannah Waddingham seems a bit of a wildcard too. Doubt many people had bets on her involvement! Glad they've got some Ukrainian representation in the form of Julia Sanina; they were the winning country after all. I'd expected Timur Miroschnychenko to be on stage, front and centre in a sparkly suit fulfilling this role, if I'm honest, but he appears to still have some level of involvement, so we'll see what form that takes in due course. Not too sure how Graham Norton's swapping back and forth from host to commentator will work out, though. Seems unnecessarily chaotic - surely Mel Giedroyc (or someone else) could have provided the commentary unaided, even if it's just for this year while Graham's presenting? Anyway... lots of unknowns yet... we shall see how it goes!
Ultimately, as a Eurovision fan who's seen us fare terribly for the past two decades, I'm just thrilled that it's taking place in the UK this year (albeit on behalf of Ukraine) in any form; it's not something I could ever have imagined seeing, post-Michael Rice, post-Joe and Jake, post-Electro Velvet... (I could go on...)
Anyway, really feels like things are starting to take shape now. I think I can officially start getting excited for May!
Be interesting to see how it goes. I feel like having three presenters for the semi-finals and four presenters for the grand final is perhaps a bit 'overkill'. (Not unique to the 2023 contest, of course - plenty of recent contests have had three/four hosts.) I feel like if they were set on having four hosts, it would have been nice to have had a 50/50 split of UK/Ukrainian presenters, rather than the 75/25 split we've ended up with. Not massively sure about Alesha Dixon; she's got some live TV experience, certainly, but I don't think she'd've been at the top of my list of people in consideration to host one of the world's biggest live TV events. Similarly, Hannah Waddingham seems a bit of a wildcard too. Doubt many people had bets on her involvement! Glad they've got some Ukrainian representation in the form of Julia Sanina; they were the winning country after all. I'd expected Timur Miroschnychenko to be on stage, front and centre in a sparkly suit fulfilling this role, if I'm honest, but he appears to still have some level of involvement, so we'll see what form that takes in due course. Not too sure how Graham Norton's swapping back and forth from host to commentator will work out, though. Seems unnecessarily chaotic - surely Mel Giedroyc (or someone else) could have provided the commentary unaided, even if it's just for this year while Graham's presenting? Anyway... lots of unknowns yet... we shall see how it goes!
Ultimately, as a Eurovision fan who's seen us fare terribly for the past two decades, I'm just thrilled that it's taking place in the UK this year (albeit on behalf of Ukraine) in any form; it's not something I could ever have imagined seeing, post-Michael Rice, post-Joe and Jake, post-Electro Velvet... (I could go on...)
Anyway, really feels like things are starting to take shape now. I think I can officially start getting excited for May!
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