After the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was canceled, several broadcasters came up with replacement shows. There is, of course, the big official offering from the EBU — “Europe Shine A Light”. But there are also shows from the Swedish and German broadcasters and now Austria’s ORF. They’ve announced that they will air “Der Kleine Song Contest” (The Little Song Contest). It will run for three nights and will be hosted by Austria’s “Mr. Eurovision” — the radio host and Eurovision commentator Andi Knoll.
Der Kleine Song Contest – How does it work?
Der Kleine Song Contest will be broadcast on 14, 16 and 18 April on ORF 1 at 20:15 CET. The three shows will pay tribute to the Eurovision 2020 entries and artists. Andi Knoll will present the official music videos of the 41 competing 2020 ESC entries to the Austrian audience over the 3 nights.
The show will have (similarly to the Swedish broadcast) a competitive aspect too. A special jury consisting of 10 former Austrian Eurovision representatives will rate each song on a scale of 1 to 12 points (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12). They can award the same amount of points to different countries several times during the broadcast. Each night a winner will be determined by the jury, then on the last night, the Austrian public will be invited to choose the winner out of the three jury winners.
The Der Kleine Song Contest Jury:
- Waterloo (represented Austria in 1976 together with Robinson with “My Little World”)
- Simone (represented Austria in 1990 with “Keine Mauen Mehr”)
- Petra Frey (represented Austria in 1994 with “Für den Frieden der Welt”)
- Manuel Ortega (represented Austria in 2002 with “Say a Word”)
- Alf Poier (represented Austria in 2003 with “Weil der Mensch zählt”)
- Eric Papilaya (represented Austria in 2007 with “Get a Life – Get Alive”)
- Nadine Beiler (represented Austria in 2011 with “The Secret Is Love”)
- Conchita (won in 2014 with “Rise Like a Phoenix”)
- ZOE (represented Austria in 2016 with “Loin d’ici”)
- Cesár Sampson (represented Austria in 2018 with “Nobody but You”)
“After the EBU decided that this year’s Eurovision acts were allowed to compete next year, but only with new songs, it would be a shame if this year’s songs all end up forgotten in the history,” Andi Knoll said. “So we decided to bring a special contest in order not to cancel the Eurovision Song Contest. It is a unique mix of live and video versions. It will be very varied and finally you can vote for Austria!”
The schedule of DKSC:
- 14 April 2020– Show 1 (14 countries)
- 16 April 2020– Show 2 (14 countries)
- 18 April 2020– Show 3 ( 13 countries/ Audience voting)
Are you excited about ORF’s alternate shows? Will you tune in? Sound off in the comments below!
If anyone wants to watch the 2 shows aired so far, they are available here:
https://tvthek.orf.at/search?q=song%20contest
Hey. I just want to tell you somethng really serious. Did you see Armenia’s clip? NO. WHY. they played a bad live that was obvious that manoukian had no sound. The official clip is at Eurovision Channel for days. They put points like 0 to a bad live video. What are you doing people?
I’M NOT FROM ARMENIA. it was awfully unfair. They should have played the official clip of “Chains on you”
Just watching it now (outside of Austria). It’s a simple concept. Works for me. Good on Austria for getting so many of their Eurovision acts to take part as the jury.
Does anyone know if it’s possible to watch outside Austria? I went to ORF TV’s website, but there is no live streaming available.
I want to watch the show so badly ??
https://tvthek.orf.at/live
Maybe this works for u
The link worked for me (watching live from Luxembourg). And the concept of the “one-man show” with videos only as well. Before each video, there was a short, but apt introduction of the country competing in today’s show. After each song, you could see how individual members of the jury voted. During the videos you could see some short comments on the song/video from the jurors and the public. Results so far: 1st place Iceland (75 points), 2nd and 3rd The Netherlands and Bulgaria (71 p. each), 4th UK (66 p.), 5th Belgium (63 p.), 6th and 7th Poland and… Read more »
Yes I will join because of Conchita. 🙂
Great idea but not so great that the public vote is narrowed down to three choices. Like why? Give it the proper ESC feeling and mix jury with public votes and have a winner. Still sounds fun though and I would definitely watch it if I lived in Austria. Plus Alf Poier and Conchita in the same studio sounds interesting. Will they vote for the same songs?
Will the 3 shows air on YouTube for the Eurovision fans in the rest of Europe?
Will we be able to watch the shows outside of Austria? I can’t wait to see Manuel Ortega!
It will be interesting to see how Alf Poier votes…
Viewers can vote for Austria? I wonder who will win?! (Facepalm)
Only if Austria makes the juries top 3.
A great idea to air all the songs. A terrible idea to have an «expert» jury limit the viewers’ choice to three songs.
can it be streamed online for those outside aus?
The jury selects the 3 that the audience can choose from? Sounds like a terrible idea.