Saturday, 8pm (UK),
BBC1 and Radio 2

It’s time for the UK to believe in Bonnie as the Eurovision Song Contest plays out for the 58th time live from Malmo in Sweden. How will the UK fare (badly probably)? And which country’s results returner’s use of humour will most backfire spectacularly? We’ve got Scott Mills doing ours so it won’t be too embarrassing. Probably.

I believe there might also be some sort of Fifty 50 Show live commentary thing going on – if it’s happening then all the details will be over there.

Join Graham Norton on BBC1 or Ken Bruce on BBC Radio 2 for an evening of songs and inevitably hilarious voting. Bonnie Tyler is singing for the UK as the 15th song of the night. We only caught the last half an hour of the Thursday semi-final so all we know is that if nothing else the Swedes have put on some excellent tension music.

Links!

• Here is the BBC site!
• And here is a link to the official live stream from 8pm UK/9pm Europe – you won’t get the commentary, but you will get to see all the action if you’re outside the EBU.

“Regrettably” I’ll be watching this with chums tonight so won’t be around for it, but I look forward to reading your comments (if you choose to make any!) after. As I said previously, Twitter’s a much better place for this sort of fast moving ephmera these days so it’s no big deal, but if there’s anything you want people to know for posterity then go ahead.

Yes yes, I know it’s Eurovision tonight (and Thursday) (and Saturday) but we live in a FAST MOVING WORLD, so here are some interesting things we’ve gathered today:

• Can you draw? Victory Television are looking for people to draw something for Draw It! The prize is a verbal or written credit. The pilot filmed today, so if you went let us know what you think. I think if it’s an hour it’s dead before it begins, and we hope it places heavy emphasis on comedy.
• SRO Audiences seemed to have turned something up called The Face for Sky Living, which seems to be a modelling version of The Voice, featuring Naomi Campbell as a mentor. I look forward to seeing how the blind auditions pan out for that. Actually it might be more like The X Factor, but that doesn’t allow me to make a clever joke.
• The people behind The Amazing Race and Lord of the Rings are planning a reality game called The Quest for ABC. Details via The Futon Critic, but it sounds Very Much Like The Sort Of Thing We Like, although we’re not massive fans of LOTR, or indeed The Amazing Race these days.
• Whodunnit? starts in the US on June 23rd. I’m looking forward to this, especially if they don’t take it too seriously (the show’s being hosted by the estate’s butler, which is a good sign). Something doesn’t quite add for me about the premise – there’s a murder mystery each week, but one of the contestants is also the murderer but a different murderer murdering the contestants and they’ll be unmasked at the end of the series which sounds a little silly, but I’m hoping I’ve missed some important plot point and that it’s an enjoyable reversioning of Mole-der in Small Town X.
• New episodes of Pointless begin May 27th.
• Finally this Saturday some folks in the US are doing a 24 Hour Game Show Marathon for cancer charities. Last year it was quite good fun, this year they have bigger intentions, and it will all be streamable. If you enjoy it, give generously. And if you want to participate then donate more than $25 now for a chance. The fun begins at noon Baltimore time, which is 5pm UK time.

Tuesday and Thursday 8pm (UK time),
BBC 3

A general post for the Eurovision Semi-Finals this week, as the advent of Twitter has rather made live discussion of them less fun in a place like this – not a complaint, just a comment!

BBC3 will be showing the semi-finals with Scott Mills and Ana Matronic from The Scissor Sisters (who are currently on “indefinite hiatus”, sadly). We in the UK can vote in Tuesday’s heat, but not the Thursday one. Interestingly, Tuesday is the one with Ireland in it, but it’s not Jedward this year so it probably won’t affect the results.

Regrettably work commitments mean I will be missing Tuesday one, and probably a bit of Thursdays as well. As I’ve not followed the Eurovision at all this year really, it should make for a nice surprise come Saturday’s big final.

Here’s a link to the BBC site, as that’s where I’ve nicked the picture from.

If you’re outside of Europe, you can still usually watch! Eurovision.tv usually carries an ungeoblocked stream, and it’s official too. If you’re watching from outside of Europe, do let us know what you think.

Please feel free to leave any Eurovisiony comments here. A separate post will go up for the grand final on Saturday.

Happy International Rachel Stevens Day everybody! It turns out that she’s currently acting as Mel B’s assistant in the New Zealand version of The X Factor (Daily Mail link). Amazing, but she could totally be the new Dannii in the UK version. Here is your Rachel flag to print out and fly outside your office.

In other news, Only Connect starts on BBC4 tonight at 8:30pm with swish updated graphics and a double-elimination first stage. Also Channel 4’s shuffled afternoon line-up begins today next Monday (oops), 1001 Things… at 12:40, Four Rooms at 2:10, Countdown 3:10. Looks like a big upgrade for Countdown although I suspect that half hour won’t actually make a huge difference – 400-450k maybe? The interesting figure is the one that 1001 Things… gets, because we toyed with the idea of Countdown moving to lunchtime, so it will be interesting to see if it pulls any audience there.

It’s round eight of Mix It Up Real Good tonight, 8pm, free to enter, and it’s a game of Five Card Draw. Do come and join us.

That clashes with JLS Does Deal Or No Deal On Channel 4. Play and chat!

MEANWHILE, this morning I’ve been using the dark arts to watch a Canadian cable show called Panic Button, which is due to air in the US soon. I saw a trailer for it and thought it looked kind of interesting – the pitch film suggests it’s set in a haunted house, but the reality appears to be a remote institution. In it five people face their fears for apparently no other reason than to try and get over them, by completing tests set out to them by a disembodied cold computer voice. The first half of the show is taken up by a sort of more extreme version of that bit with the prisoners escaping the underground dungeons on Fort Boyard, but a bit more tailored to each person’s fears. The second half is taken up by more specific challenges the first one more proactive (put your hand in the tank of snakes to retrieve a bone), the final one more of an endurance test in the vein of I’m a Celeb. Contestants quit by hitting their panic button or by yelling “panic, panic, panic!” they win if they get through all four levels.

It’s quite clear what they’ve done here is film 30 different contestants go through the game and cut and paste  so that a) a selection of different fears and therefore tests are shown during each episode and that b) there will be enough drop outs so the final segment will have two people in it doing different things, with the likelihood that one will ‘win’ and one will ‘lose’. The graphics show people in different parts of the facility, but clearly it’s just the same course dressed up for different people.

If you like the Saw/Cube ideas and aesthetic (and I do), you’ll probably get a kick out of this, I did find it genuinely thrilling and un-nerving, the show’s biggest problem is that it’s basically too dark and whilst that might be acceptable for scaring the contestants, for the viewers the dark passages element is actually a bit irritating – it’s twenty minutes of screaming and not being able to see very much. However if you do like this sort of thing (and I rather suspect you already know if you like this sort of thing), it’s worth a look if you can get past the geoblocking.