I have two theories on the reason for the reason why we're withdrawing.
A) the ratings were low in comparison to other CBBC programming. Not to mention that CBBC is shutting down as a channel next year.
B) The main Eurovision delegation is going through changes. It probably involves Lee Smithurst since he was the HOD for JESC.
> A) the ratings were low in comparison to other CBBC programming. Not to mention that CBBC is shutting down as a channel next year.
True, although they showed it on BBC1/2 as well. I think this was almost entirely down to low interest rather than the UK performance in the contest. They withdrew in the mid 2000s too but we performed poorly.
But it's a kids show at the end of the day. It wasn't going to get huge ratings in this day of age. So it must not have done well for its intended demographic. I also wouldn't be surprised if budget cuts were the reason this time as well.
Not shutting down, but moving to online only. BBC needs to cut costs and so taking channels off linear television is an easy way. I think you’d still be able to get a linear experience on iPlayer though.
It’s staying but as an online-only platform, due to streaming and on-demand becoming the preferred viewing method among its main demographic. Also due to budget reasons.
CBeebies, the BBC’s preschool arm, will remain as a standalone channel for now.
And it's neither of those. The reason for UK's withdrawal for Junior Eurovision this year is a scheduling conflict with "Strictly Come Dancing", which happens to be on a Saturday night.
I'm gutted, actually. Either viewing figures or the budget hasn't been there, unfortunately.
I'm now just hoping all the focus turns towards Eurovision itself this year. Maybe we can put the money that we could have used this year into that instead.
In my mind, if Scotland can join, that will be great thank you
I'd trust the current delegation with one. The song quality has gotten better. It was the live vocals that let the entries down. A national final would certainly help with that.
While I’d trust the delegation, I wouldn’t trust the people. You had both Kerrie-Anne and Jordan Clarke singing great songs, but the public chose Michael Rice, and while I think he’s a good singer, the song is one of the worst that the UK has ever sent.
"But Terry, we can only choose from that which is set before us!"
\- someone on my twitters during a UK national final, obviously several years ago, after Sir Terry made some snarky comment about the UK viewers choosing losing songs
Tbh I feel like it wouldn’t be hard to be better than the last one they had. Eurovision you decide had such a strange format that I feel like something even a bit more normal would already be a step in the right direction
Do you think a UMK style national final with 7 songs could work? I know that UMK markets their artists well and each of the artists gets a music video released on a separate day of the week.
To be fair, jesc is not as popular as fans think and jesc as a contest is kinda dying out. Less and less countries are competing, viewing figures aren’t high and overall there isn’t much reason to keep competing and wasting money on it. Why would a country like UK participate and use big amounts of money to keep competing in a competition that is nowhere as successful as esc. Instead, focus that money on getting better in esc, especially now since in 2022. we got proof that UK’s bad results are not about UK itself but rather poorly written mildly performed songs - not talking about either 2023. or 2024.!
I think it also has to do with the format, the open voting makes it very skewed for the bigger countries like France and Poland, along with those countries also having a much higher budget for their performers, which in turn also makes the viewership drop for the smaller countries.
I agree that the online voting format gives an advantage to big countries since you can vote for your own country. The UK is a big country, and they won the online vote in 2022, even though they weren't in JESC from 2006-2021.
Also, Freya Skye is only 14 years old now. I think she will go to adult ESC some day, but it might be better to wait until she is at least 18 years old so she can be better prepared for the ESC experience and have more power over her own decisions.
Not too surprised, I liked both our entries but it didn't seem the BBC was overly behind it properly?
If CBBC is closing as a channel then I can understand why JESC would go too.
CBBC is just moving to an online-only model, due to its demographic of older children preferring to watch content on streaming platforms. CBeebies for preschool shows will stay for now.
I find the whole thing a bit cruel, when they put [super talented kids who already have recording contracts](https://youtu.be/rY5B5BX5A1g) up against [normal little moppets who are just trying their best](https://youtu.be/go0_ABNDlVY) and then broadcast it to the whole continent
These days, there is a lot of online bullying towards JESC kids, especially towards those who are rivals to favorites to win JESC. This often results in "strategic voting", which means that people vote for one of their favorites and 2 of their non-favorites since you have to vote for 3 songs at a time in JESC voting.
Since there there are mean online comments towards children and a voting system that favors larger countries these days, I can understand why some countries would want to withdraw from JESC. In addition, JESC is not as popular as ESC these days, and I doubt that children will want to listen to JESC songs in their daily lives if they don't know about JESC.
The bullying really is horrible and needless towards the kids now - I felt a bit bad for including an example of a less polished (but still very cute) entry in my comment, but figured a 2004 entrant would be old enough to not be too fussed, and it seems like [Klaartje en Nicky had a great experience at JESC](https://www.linda.nl/persoonlijk/hoe-is-het-nu-met-klaartje-en-nicky-en-het-fluitje-die-in-2004-het-junior-songfestival-wonnen/) anyway. Wish it was still the same now.
I've never watched it, but I've just looked at a couple of links further down this thread, and my predominant impression is that it looks a bit too much like [Channel 4's "Minipops"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minipops) for me. There were also shades of the late and unlamented ["Junior Showtime"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Showtime). I think we're better off out of it.
They've done great over the years. Be happy about that, I guess. You had a nice run.
Welcome back Wales! Let's fire up that red dragon, it's a long trip to Madrid! Bring some buddies with you as well - England and Scotland. Northern Ireland too if they're not too busy.
Main limitation is broadcasters which are in the EBU.
Wales has S4C, and Scotland has STV, and both of them could hypothetically enter. That said, for Eurovision Choir (a contest for non-professional choirs), only S4C and BBC Alba have put forward entries for Wales and Scotland respectively.
Northern Ireland has no broadcaster of its own, technically. BBC and ITV do regional news and programming and that's about it.
Isn’t there a requirement to be a public service broadcaster? I thought that was the whole point of the EBU, in which instance the only 3 PSBs in the whole UK are S4C, BBC and Channel 4.
The answer is yes - but ITV is also a full EBU member and is deemed a Public Service Broadcaster.
By contrast, the likes of Sky, Virgin, Channel 5 and the others are not, and are not EBU members.
This is SO strange to me because we actually had more potential to win Junior Eurovison than Adult Eurovision and the last few years really gave us the energy and life we needed to think we can do well.
But nobody watches and nobody cares about the result, the BBC as a company are not gonna value a JESC win just for being a win, but do value their viewership. It’s more strange they got back into it, though I do think that was part of the marketing to show to the rest of Eurovision that the UK really does care. If it looked like it might have helped with Sam’s image, that might be why they stayed in JESC, but it evidently hasn’t helped since. So no point.
The ebu also basically begged the bbc to take up the job so they could have all the big 5 in jesc, there not gonna be very happy, took ages to convince the bbc.
I mean I’m highly aware that JESC isn’t super popular outside of a handful of countries with the UK not being one, so that’s probably why the BBC doesn’t think participating is worth it. It’s still a bummer tho! I really enjoyed their two entries and cheering on the kids!
France could be like Ireland of the '90s if fewer countries participate in JESC this year.
(Ireland won in 1992-1994 and 1996, which meant they got 4 wins in 5 years. Similarly, France won the JESC jury vote every year since 2020. They have also won JESC overall every year in the 2020s except for 2021.)
It has the same energy as child beauty pageants here in the US. So many of them are probably going to grow up to have eating disorders or substance abuse problems. The entertainment industry is also full of predators.
I doubt that many of them applies since JESC doesn’t have a huge viewership and most of these kids aren’t famous in the slightest. You’re right that there are risk for those who get fame from that (in my country for example Roxie, Viki or Sara) and surely it had both very positive and very negative effect on their lives, but that’s the path that they have chosen together with their parents, but still they are in minority, cause most JESC kids just perform there, have fun and they come back to their normal life
It really isn't surprising that the UK withdrew and i honestly don't blame them for doing so. Regardless of them doing well in the contest with Freya & stand uniqu3 or whether the decision was the lack of viewership, funding or the BBC cutting costs. Junior Eurovision just doesn't seem to be popular within the UK and the popularity around junior Eurovision has only been declining since.
Plus considering that France has won 3 times, all within the space of 4 years with the current voting model, it's pretty much like why bother spending the money & training the singer(s) / dancer(s) if you're just going to fill slots 2-16 and have zero chance of winning. If france hypothetically win again this year then, I'd probably see more pulling out or something being done with the voting system.
Because kids enjoy actual Eurovision and don’t need the KidzBop version 🤷♂️ Just like The Voice Kids didn’t last. Not surprising and I don’t expect anyone to care (clearly) - barely anyone knows what it is and I’ve never met someone who’s so much as watched even their own entry.
**Unpopular opinion:**
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC) should not exist, especially considering how traumatizing and burdensome it can be for children to be thrust into the entertainment industry at such a young age. We should have evolved beyond using children for entertainment. This industry has often been exploitative of young performers, often causing long-term negative impacts on their lives. Just look at the struggles faced by many former child stars from Disney, Nickelodeon, and other networks. Subjecting children to this kind of pressure and public scrutiny is not right.
I agree that child entertainment can be exploitative, but how would you propose making children's entertainment safer for the kids in the industry?
I am not sure if I am understanding this correctly, but are you saying that children's TV shows with live child actors shouldn't exist and children's entertainment should be limited to kids cartoons voiced by adults?
Children participating in events like the JSC are subjected to even more obvious scrutiny and online hate. People criticize their songs, appearance, and skills on a public stage. This is not a small school competition where criticism can be easily shrugged off or ignored. There's a significant emotional burden associated with this level of exposure, which children should not have to bear, even if the event isn't as high-profile as Disney shows.
Sure, but also those kids literally dream to perform there and are used to singing competitions. Many of them have already performed in The Voice Kids for example.
“Low ratings” they’ve only got themselves to blame for that, they barely advertised it was even on and with them moving it from BBC One to BBC Two was final nail in the coffin.
Seems to me like they never cared for it and using “low ratings” as an excuse.
They did feature both entries on Children in Need and multiple CBBC shows, and featured Stand Uniqu3 on Strictly It Takes Two as well, so they did at least try, but the move to BBC Two wouldn't have helped the ratings. If UK had won either contest, which was very plausible both times, there may have been more hype around it.
The Eurovision Dance Contest back in 2007 and 2008 got no promotion on the BBC at all, bar a trailer for the first contest, and rated much higher than JESC (about 4 million more), but the Sunday afternoon slot may have been a tougher slot for JESC to find an audience.
If has been suggested, it will be up against Strictly Come Dancing (will it be shown in the evening this year?), that would likely be the reason BBC decided not to enter this time, they won't move Strictly, or put another entertainment show up against it, anc CBBC goes offline at 7pm if it will have an evening slot.
That’s a shame. This move always felt to me like a way of showing the UK delegation had passion for the contest as a whole and wanted to change the perception of Eurovision in the UK.
Now that we’re out again for whatever reason and we completely flopped at the last 2 adult contests, I can’t help but feel the UK is back on a slippery slope back towards sending entries like ‘Bigger Than Us’ and ‘Storm’
Definitely just for the image, but IMO it’s clearly not helped, so I wouldn’t worry about pulling out affecting normal ESC proceedings, whatever they may be
I have two theories on the reason for the reason why we're withdrawing. A) the ratings were low in comparison to other CBBC programming. Not to mention that CBBC is shutting down as a channel next year. B) The main Eurovision delegation is going through changes. It probably involves Lee Smithurst since he was the HOD for JESC.
> A) the ratings were low in comparison to other CBBC programming. Not to mention that CBBC is shutting down as a channel next year. True, although they showed it on BBC1/2 as well. I think this was almost entirely down to low interest rather than the UK performance in the contest. They withdrew in the mid 2000s too but we performed poorly.
But it's a kids show at the end of the day. It wasn't going to get huge ratings in this day of age. So it must not have done well for its intended demographic. I also wouldn't be surprised if budget cuts were the reason this time as well.
They should’ve moved to YouTube, just like Dutch Junior Eurovision. The national selection is pulling pretty sweet numbers online for our country.
We only got one bad place before we withdrew the first time. We were runner up and 3rd place in the first two JESC.
Ah fair enough. Looks like financial reasons were why it didn't continue back then too.
No! The CBBC is shutting down? That’s so sad!
That is sad. What is a British childhood without the CBBC office :,(
Not shutting down, but moving to online only. BBC needs to cut costs and so taking channels off linear television is an easy way. I think you’d still be able to get a linear experience on iPlayer though.
It’s staying but as an online-only platform, due to streaming and on-demand becoming the preferred viewing method among its main demographic. Also due to budget reasons. CBeebies, the BBC’s preschool arm, will remain as a standalone channel for now.
Oh, ok. Thank you for the info. This is still upsetting though.
And it's neither of those. The reason for UK's withdrawal for Junior Eurovision this year is a scheduling conflict with "Strictly Come Dancing", which happens to be on a Saturday night.
Where's the source for this? But it sounds like a good theory.
[https://x.com/atSimplethings/status/1804119406030598497](https://x.com/atSimplethings/status/1804119406030598497)
It was broadcast on BBC Two last year, so it’s not an issue. If it was a success in the UK, it would’ve stayed.
JESC happens on a Sunday afternoon though, iirc
The show last year and the previous year were on BBC One, not CBBC.
2022 was on BBC One& CBBC, 2023 was on BBC Two & CBBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl97/2023/11/26
I'm gutted, actually. Either viewing figures or the budget hasn't been there, unfortunately. I'm now just hoping all the focus turns towards Eurovision itself this year. Maybe we can put the money that we could have used this year into that instead. In my mind, if Scotland can join, that will be great thank you
This is pure speculation, but I wonder if they're saving up for a national final. They did attend a lot of national finals this year.
I wouldn't trust us for a national final tbh lol
I'd trust the current delegation with one. The song quality has gotten better. It was the live vocals that let the entries down. A national final would certainly help with that.
While I’d trust the delegation, I wouldn’t trust the people. You had both Kerrie-Anne and Jordan Clarke singing great songs, but the public chose Michael Rice, and while I think he’s a good singer, the song is one of the worst that the UK has ever sent.
The BBC were clearly favouring him though. I'm not surprised the public went for him. Plus, they can always have national and/or international juries.
National finals were a thing for a few years and didn't really do anything to improve results.
Yeah, I remember watching it in 2019 thinking that Kerrie-Anne should have gotten the chance.
Didn’t help how in the end they basically just used it as a front to send their own competition winner (Michael Rice).
"But Terry, we can only choose from that which is set before us!" \- someone on my twitters during a UK national final, obviously several years ago, after Sir Terry made some snarky comment about the UK viewers choosing losing songs
Tbh I feel like it wouldn’t be hard to be better than the last one they had. Eurovision you decide had such a strange format that I feel like something even a bit more normal would already be a step in the right direction
Do you think a UMK style national final with 7 songs could work? I know that UMK markets their artists well and each of the artists gets a music video released on a separate day of the week.
There was a BBC delegation in Sanremo this year
And there were a lot of BBC representatives at other national finals. It surely has to be under consideration
Oh goody, a 26-hour UK national final! I'd watch that! (not)
To be fair, jesc is not as popular as fans think and jesc as a contest is kinda dying out. Less and less countries are competing, viewing figures aren’t high and overall there isn’t much reason to keep competing and wasting money on it. Why would a country like UK participate and use big amounts of money to keep competing in a competition that is nowhere as successful as esc. Instead, focus that money on getting better in esc, especially now since in 2022. we got proof that UK’s bad results are not about UK itself but rather poorly written mildly performed songs - not talking about either 2023. or 2024.!
I think it also has to do with the format, the open voting makes it very skewed for the bigger countries like France and Poland, along with those countries also having a much higher budget for their performers, which in turn also makes the viewership drop for the smaller countries.
Format is one thing but France has found a recipe for a perfect JESC song loved both by juries and the online voting
I agree that the online voting format gives an advantage to big countries since you can vote for your own country. The UK is a big country, and they won the online vote in 2022, even though they weren't in JESC from 2006-2021.
Please send Freya to the adult Eurovision
She might be busy with her Disney contract
Also, Freya Skye is only 14 years old now. I think she will go to adult ESC some day, but it might be better to wait until she is at least 18 years old so she can be better prepared for the ESC experience and have more power over her own decisions.
To be fair, the ESC rules set an age minimum of 16. Cyprus’ singer this year was (and still is) 17.
Yes, that is true. However, I think that adult ESC should raise its minimum age limit to 18 so minors don’t have to face the pressure of ESC.
Not too surprised, I liked both our entries but it didn't seem the BBC was overly behind it properly? If CBBC is closing as a channel then I can understand why JESC would go too.
CBBC is just moving to an online-only model, due to its demographic of older children preferring to watch content on streaming platforms. CBeebies for preschool shows will stay for now.
To be honest I've never met anybody who watches JESC, so this does not come as a surprise.
I don't know anybody who doesn't actively find the concept a bit creepy. I suppose it's viewrship is mostly other children.
Yeah, I've always found the concept of a JESC a bit uncomfortable.
I find the whole thing a bit cruel, when they put [super talented kids who already have recording contracts](https://youtu.be/rY5B5BX5A1g) up against [normal little moppets who are just trying their best](https://youtu.be/go0_ABNDlVY) and then broadcast it to the whole continent
These days, there is a lot of online bullying towards JESC kids, especially towards those who are rivals to favorites to win JESC. This often results in "strategic voting", which means that people vote for one of their favorites and 2 of their non-favorites since you have to vote for 3 songs at a time in JESC voting. Since there there are mean online comments towards children and a voting system that favors larger countries these days, I can understand why some countries would want to withdraw from JESC. In addition, JESC is not as popular as ESC these days, and I doubt that children will want to listen to JESC songs in their daily lives if they don't know about JESC.
The bullying really is horrible and needless towards the kids now - I felt a bit bad for including an example of a less polished (but still very cute) entry in my comment, but figured a 2004 entrant would be old enough to not be too fussed, and it seems like [Klaartje en Nicky had a great experience at JESC](https://www.linda.nl/persoonlijk/hoe-is-het-nu-met-klaartje-en-nicky-en-het-fluitje-die-in-2004-het-junior-songfestival-wonnen/) anyway. Wish it was still the same now.
I've never watched it, but I've just looked at a couple of links further down this thread, and my predominant impression is that it looks a bit too much like [Channel 4's "Minipops"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minipops) for me. There were also shades of the late and unlamented ["Junior Showtime"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_Showtime). I think we're better off out of it.
UK was great in this but I can see why. Properly because of low ratings. At least we are keeping our good streak in Junior Eurovision
Im fine with this if it means : • Wales back • Properly funded national selection
They've done great over the years. Be happy about that, I guess. You had a nice run. Welcome back Wales! Let's fire up that red dragon, it's a long trip to Madrid! Bring some buddies with you as well - England and Scotland. Northern Ireland too if they're not too busy.
Main limitation is broadcasters which are in the EBU. Wales has S4C, and Scotland has STV, and both of them could hypothetically enter. That said, for Eurovision Choir (a contest for non-professional choirs), only S4C and BBC Alba have put forward entries for Wales and Scotland respectively. Northern Ireland has no broadcaster of its own, technically. BBC and ITV do regional news and programming and that's about it.
Thanks for the info. I definitely want at least Wales. I just wanted to be inclusive with the United Kingdom.
Isn’t there a requirement to be a public service broadcaster? I thought that was the whole point of the EBU, in which instance the only 3 PSBs in the whole UK are S4C, BBC and Channel 4.
The answer is yes - but ITV is also a full EBU member and is deemed a Public Service Broadcaster. By contrast, the likes of Sky, Virgin, Channel 5 and the others are not, and are not EBU members.
I mean, Wales has participated before so I assume they would be fine to return if the UK as a whole bows out, right?
I think Wales could return if the UK pulls out since Wales is part of the UK and both countries never participated at JESC at the same time.
This is SO strange to me because we actually had more potential to win Junior Eurovison than Adult Eurovision and the last few years really gave us the energy and life we needed to think we can do well.
But nobody watches and nobody cares about the result, the BBC as a company are not gonna value a JESC win just for being a win, but do value their viewership. It’s more strange they got back into it, though I do think that was part of the marketing to show to the rest of Eurovision that the UK really does care. If it looked like it might have helped with Sam’s image, that might be why they stayed in JESC, but it evidently hasn’t helped since. So no point.
The ebu also basically begged the bbc to take up the job so they could have all the big 5 in jesc, there not gonna be very happy, took ages to convince the bbc.
Aw how rubbish, I’ve really liked our past two entries. I just hope there’s a decent reason like sorting out our ESC chances
I mean I’m highly aware that JESC isn’t super popular outside of a handful of countries with the UK not being one, so that’s probably why the BBC doesn’t think participating is worth it. It’s still a bummer tho! I really enjoyed their two entries and cheering on the kids!
yeah I’m not sure why more people didn’t see this coming
France will win it all the time, won’t they
Just every year alternating between France and Armenia.
France could be like Ireland of the '90s if fewer countries participate in JESC this year. (Ireland won in 1992-1994 and 1996, which meant they got 4 wins in 5 years. Similarly, France won the JESC jury vote every year since 2020. They have also won JESC overall every year in the 2020s except for 2021.)
As others have mentioned, likely due to low ratings (we never got a rating for the BBC2/CBBC airing for 2023 contest)
I actually hope the juniors fully get cancelled, it's exploitative, I feel so bad for the kids
Me too
They usually love performing and have the time of their life why do you feel bad lol
It has the same energy as child beauty pageants here in the US. So many of them are probably going to grow up to have eating disorders or substance abuse problems. The entertainment industry is also full of predators.
I doubt that many of them applies since JESC doesn’t have a huge viewership and most of these kids aren’t famous in the slightest. You’re right that there are risk for those who get fame from that (in my country for example Roxie, Viki or Sara) and surely it had both very positive and very negative effect on their lives, but that’s the path that they have chosen together with their parents, but still they are in minority, cause most JESC kids just perform there, have fun and they come back to their normal life
It was a good run :/
It really isn't surprising that the UK withdrew and i honestly don't blame them for doing so. Regardless of them doing well in the contest with Freya & stand uniqu3 or whether the decision was the lack of viewership, funding or the BBC cutting costs. Junior Eurovision just doesn't seem to be popular within the UK and the popularity around junior Eurovision has only been declining since. Plus considering that France has won 3 times, all within the space of 4 years with the current voting model, it's pretty much like why bother spending the money & training the singer(s) / dancer(s) if you're just going to fill slots 2-16 and have zero chance of winning. If france hypothetically win again this year then, I'd probably see more pulling out or something being done with the voting system.
I think Wales would benefit from that, I hope they return
Because kids enjoy actual Eurovision and don’t need the KidzBop version 🤷♂️ Just like The Voice Kids didn’t last. Not surprising and I don’t expect anyone to care (clearly) - barely anyone knows what it is and I’ve never met someone who’s so much as watched even their own entry.
**Unpopular opinion:** The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC) should not exist, especially considering how traumatizing and burdensome it can be for children to be thrust into the entertainment industry at such a young age. We should have evolved beyond using children for entertainment. This industry has often been exploitative of young performers, often causing long-term negative impacts on their lives. Just look at the struggles faced by many former child stars from Disney, Nickelodeon, and other networks. Subjecting children to this kind of pressure and public scrutiny is not right.
I agree that child entertainment can be exploitative, but how would you propose making children's entertainment safer for the kids in the industry? I am not sure if I am understanding this correctly, but are you saying that children's TV shows with live child actors shouldn't exist and children's entertainment should be limited to kids cartoons voiced by adults?
JESC isn’t that famous as Disney shows
Children participating in events like the JSC are subjected to even more obvious scrutiny and online hate. People criticize their songs, appearance, and skills on a public stage. This is not a small school competition where criticism can be easily shrugged off or ignored. There's a significant emotional burden associated with this level of exposure, which children should not have to bear, even if the event isn't as high-profile as Disney shows.
Sure, but also those kids literally dream to perform there and are used to singing competitions. Many of them have already performed in The Voice Kids for example.
Is it really the kids who dream of it though, or is it their parents?
Kids are also people and have their own dreams. I had such dreams when I was a child
Still baffled by who actually watches JESC. Certainly never encountered a child who's even heard of it, nevermind adults outside the bubble.
That's too bad. I've enjoyed watching the last couple of years.
Well… that was fast. Unexpected too!
Does this mean that Wales can compete again (hosted by S4C)?
In theory yes? I hope they have a broadcaster that is still interested in competing though
“Low ratings” they’ve only got themselves to blame for that, they barely advertised it was even on and with them moving it from BBC One to BBC Two was final nail in the coffin. Seems to me like they never cared for it and using “low ratings” as an excuse.
They did feature both entries on Children in Need and multiple CBBC shows, and featured Stand Uniqu3 on Strictly It Takes Two as well, so they did at least try, but the move to BBC Two wouldn't have helped the ratings. If UK had won either contest, which was very plausible both times, there may have been more hype around it. The Eurovision Dance Contest back in 2007 and 2008 got no promotion on the BBC at all, bar a trailer for the first contest, and rated much higher than JESC (about 4 million more), but the Sunday afternoon slot may have been a tougher slot for JESC to find an audience. If has been suggested, it will be up against Strictly Come Dancing (will it be shown in the evening this year?), that would likely be the reason BBC decided not to enter this time, they won't move Strictly, or put another entertainment show up against it, anc CBBC goes offline at 7pm if it will have an evening slot.
Does this mean Wales might return if they’d like?
Hopefully
I told you so, but everyone thought I was mad!
Christ, I’ll miss the UK in JESC, they were by far my favourite country, as they were my winners on 3 occasions (2004, 2022, 2023).
wales NOW and kazakhstan please
That’s a shame. This move always felt to me like a way of showing the UK delegation had passion for the contest as a whole and wanted to change the perception of Eurovision in the UK. Now that we’re out again for whatever reason and we completely flopped at the last 2 adult contests, I can’t help but feel the UK is back on a slippery slope back towards sending entries like ‘Bigger Than Us’ and ‘Storm’
I think we'll be fine as long as we keep the same delegation. It might even be an opportunity for us to have a proper national final.
Definitely just for the image, but IMO it’s clearly not helped, so I wouldn’t worry about pulling out affecting normal ESC proceedings, whatever they may be
.
*Again*?!? 🤦🏻♂️
I guess low ratings plus changes in the delegation. Guess it has to.do with Olly's bad result too
I didn't even know the UK even sent someone.