Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Contents |
Host
UK Heat:
Mark Durden-Smith and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (2003)
Michael Underwood, Stephen Mulhern and Holly Willoughby (2004)
Michael Underwood and Nikki Sanderson (2005)
Co-hosts
Commentary:
Mark Durden-Smith and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (2003)
Matt Brown (2004)
Michael Underwood (2005)
Ewan Spence (2013-)
Luke Fisher (2013, 2015-)
Ivan Ivanov (2015-)
Broadcast
Television:
ITV1, 6 September 2003 and 15 November 2003
ITV2, 4 September 2004, 20 November 2004, 3 September 2005 and 26 November 2005
junioreurovision.tv, 22 November 2008 to present
Radio:
98.8 Castle FM, 30 November 2013
K107 and 103 The Eye, 15 November 2014
Cotswold FM and Fun Kids, 21 November 2015 to present
Synopsis
In 2003, the EBU started doing a Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest, which is held in November each year. It has surprisingly high production values, so high in fact that when ITV realised how much money it would cost to put it on they stepped out when it was their turn to host it. The winning country doesn't necessarily hold the next one (as apparently it would put too much pressure on the kids, as opposed to singing for the whole of Europe). There is an upper age limit to the contestants, and they have to write the lyrics and the melodies.
The first one rated so poorly on ITV (who bought the rights to it when the BBC declined) that the next two contests aired on ITV2, before being dropped altogether the following year. Despite not being broadcast on any UK TV channel, viewers in the UK can still watch the contest via a live webstream made available during the event.
The Junior contest came close to ending in 2012 when the show was beset by technical problems and really didn't work. Things changed from 2013, moving the focus up a few years from tweens to teens. The show returned to UK broadcast media, with Ewan Spence and Luke Fisher delivering the EBU commentary, rebroadcast on Castle FM in Edinburgh. The 2014 radio commentary was outsourced to Glasgow-based Radio Six International, and taken by community station K107 in Kirkcaldy.
Web links
See also
Weaver's Week reviews of 2005, 2014 and 2015
