I found that this year's Eurovision Song Contest was infinitely improved by Twitter. Following the right hashtag meant great entertainment for all concerned! In this instance - #twumpet - created by Father Ted and IT Crowd creator, Graham Linehan.
In fact - any big live TV moment's improved with Twitter. Awards ceremonies for example. Eurovision is a strange thing that even us Brits claim not to take seriously - but sort of get upset if we don't do well. We finished in the top 5 this year, so that improved on recent performances. They also changed the judging criteria so that it wasn't just a thoroughly partisan phone vote (lots of "young" eastern European states all vote for one another - whereas we only reciprocate with Ireland). The point scoring is as much fun as watching the songs. Especially with presenters who want to "build" on their fifteen seconds of Europe-wide fame, and when poorer more "deficiant" states technical inadequancies are laid bare. The poor old Azerbaijani presenter took this year's wooden spoon. She had prehistoric green-screen technology with fireworks projected behind her, and the feed kept cutting out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpOzeNZ8ru0&feature=related - about 1 min 20). What happened to the mooted idea - I think by NBC - of doing a US state by state competition along similar lines? You have two semi-finals and then a final of 25 songs. You'd get three big three hour spectaculars! Adam On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 4:32 PM, Mark J. <[email protected]> wrote: > > The Eurovision song contest, that great (?) European TV event, > happened Saturday night, and Guardian blogger Heidi Stephens, > following the great tradition in the UK of not taking it seriously at > all, laid into the Norwegian winner much as she had most of the other > contestants: > > "It's NORWAY, and a young cheeky little chap called Alexander Rybak. > This is the favourite, apparently ... umm, sorry? > > "He's like a little Dickensian schoolboy with a violin and bonkers > eyebrows, and it's all very theatrical, with backing dancers in braces > doing gymnastics. It's like a stage school performance of Fiddler On > the Roof. Could someone please poke him in the eye with his violin > bow, please? Fairytale my ass. > > "This cannot possibly win. I will not allow it." > > ----------------- > > Unfortunately for Stephens, much of the rest of Europe does take > Eurovision seriously, and so her live blog post at the Guardian's > Organ Grinder soon had over 1,300 comments, many of them from angry > Norwegians (egged on by right-wing newspapers tsk-tsk-ing at the > famously lefty Guardian) supporting their hero (includes links to live > blog post): > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/may/18/norway-eurovision-song-contest-heidi-stephens > > And to think that the biggest controversy might've been some grannies > calling up the BBC to complain about that poof Graham Norton replacing > Terry Wogan as host of the Beeb's Eurovision coverage. > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... Smart (TV) People on Ice! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
