Eurovision 2020 is cancelled. But the spirit of the contest lives on, especially tonight, in what would have been the grand final. Broadcasters all over Europe are organising their own alternative schedules and replacement shows.
And we’ve gone through the TV guides so you don’t have to! Listed below is all of the alternative Eurovision programming being broadcast on Saturday 16 May.
Given the sheer amount of content, we haven’t been able to provide links. But most broadcasters should have online players. Geo-blocks may apply
These listings, while comprehensive, are not necessarily conclusive. If we are missing a show from your country, please let us know in the comments and we’ll update the post.
All times are in CEST unless otherwise stated.
Pick of the day: Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light
🌍 21:00: 46 national broadcasters and YouTube
This is the EBU-organised replacement show for Eurovision 2020. It is set to last for two hours and will be a celebration rather than a contest.
All 41 artists will send a personal message to everyone in Europe and a clip of the song with which they were supposed to participate in Eurovision 2020. But that’s not all. The artists will also perform “Love Shine A Light” by Katrina and The Waves, the winner of Eurovision 1997. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra — which consists of 90+ musicians — will also perform a special orchestral version of the song.
Past stars will also take part. Reigning Eurovision champ Duncan Laurence will perform his new song “Someone Else”. Michael Schulte (Germany, 2018) will perform “Ein Bisshen Frieden” together with Ilse DeLange (The Netherlands, 2014). Israel’s 1979 Eurovision winner Gali Atari will sing her song “Hallelujah” along with a special Junior Eurovision Song Contest choir. Other Eurovision winners to perform will include Sweden’s Måns Zelmerlöw, Serbia’s Marija Šerifović and Israel’s Netta. The latter will perform a new song. Ireland’s Johnny Logan will perform “What’s Another Year” with a virtual choir of Eurovision fans.
Proceedings will be helmed by the would-be Eurovision 2020 hosts –Chantal Janzen, Edsilia Rombley and Jan Smit. YouTube star NikkieTutorials will keep us updated in an online platform. The show will be presented in the English.
Best of the rest
Eurovision 2020: Big Night In!
11:30: SBS (19:30 local time AEST)
Big Night In! will be hosted by Australia’s Eurovision commentators and national final hosts Myf Warhurst and Joel Creasey. The show will feature an exclusive performance from Montaigne, who will deliver the performance of “Don’t Break Me” she had been due to give in Rotterdam. Australian fans will also have a chance to vote for their favourites from Eurovision 2020. Just like Australia did in the years before they started competing at Eurovision, SBS ran a poll earlier in May for down under fans to vote for their favourites. The results will be revealed throughout the Big Night In! show.
Pointless Celebrities: Eurovision Special
18:40: BBC One — (17:40 local time)
The popular teatime quiz show in which contestants are tested on their ability to find obscure answer to general knowledge questions will have a celebrity Eurovision special. The stars at the podiums will be Jay Aston (UK 1981), Mike Nolan (UK 1981), SuRie (UK 2018), Dana (Ireland 1970), Jade Ewen (UK 2009), John Lundvik (Sweden 2019), Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland 1993) and Mans Zelmerlow (Sweden 2015).
Eurovision Come Together
19:30: BBC One — (18:30 local time)
The BBC’s own celebration show will cram a lot into just one hour. It is set to celebrate the 2020 entries, have fan lip syncs of all-time classics from the likes of KEiiNO and Jedward and a vote on Britain’s favourite Eurovision song of all time. And in between all that there will also be an interview with the UK’s 2020 singer James Newman. Graham Norton will host.
German Eurovision Finale
20:15: ARD
As we already know, the official Eurovision alternative program from the EBU will not include a voting segment. That won’t be the case at the “German Eurovision final”. This alternative final on will show German viewers their top 10 picks from the semi-final one week earlier. It will also include live performances from some of these 10 Eurovision finalists AND Ben Dolic. Germany’s Eurovision 2020 act will perform his catchy song “Violent Thing” and give us a performance very close to the one he would have done in Rotterdam. It has been choreographed by Marty Kudelka, a high profile US-Czech-star choreographer. In the end one of the 10 finalists will be crowned the “German winner of Eurovision 2020”. The show will be hosted by Barbara Schöneberger live from the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Germany.
Saturday 16 May — Full Guide
04:00: BBC Radio 2 — From ABBA to Azerbaijan (03:00 local time)
11:00: BBC Radio 2 — Graham Norton (10:00 local time)
11:30: SBS — Eurovision 2020: Big Night In! (19:30 local time AEST)
13:00: Radio 2 — De Songfestival top 40
13:05: KAN — Dare To Dream – Chapters 1 and 2 (14:05 local time)
14:30: SBS — Eurovision Top 40 Controversies (22:30 local time AEST)
16:00: NPO — De Beste Zangers Eurovision special
16:05: YLE TV2 — Eurovision Diaries (17:05 local time)
16:30: SBS — Secrets Of Eurovision (00:30 Sunday local time AEST)
16:55 RÚV — Eurovision 1986 in Bergen (14:55 local time)
17:05: YLE TV2 — Yle Olohuone: Euroviisustudio (Eurovision Studio) (18:05 local time)
17:30: YLE TV2 — Eurovision 2007 grand final (18:30 local time)
18:15: KAN — Dare To Dream – The Last Chapter (19:15 local time)
18:40: BBC One — Pointless Celebrities: Eurovision Special (17:40 local time)
19:30: BBC One — Eurovision Come Together (18:30 local time)
19:40: NRK 1 — Beat For Beat MGP Special
19:55: RTÉ One — Marty’s Magical Eurovision Moments (18:55 local time)
20:00: TV SLO 1 — Pesem Evrovizije: Najboljših 25 (Eurovision Song Contest: Top 25)
20:00: LRT — EuROOPvision (21:00 local time)
20:00: Sveriges Radio — P4 Music Eurovision
20:25: NPO — Het beste van het songfestival (The Best of Eurovision)
20:10: RIK 1 — Eurovision Introduction with Loukas Hamatsos (21:10 local time)
20:10: SRF, RTS and RSI — Die Schweiz am ESC – Dramen, Siege, Emotionen (Switzerland and the Eurovision Song Contest – dramas, victories, emotions)
20:15: ORF 1 — Österreich 12 Punkte – die Song Contest Erfolgsgeschichte (Austria 12 Points – The Song Contest Success Story)
20:15: ARD — German Eurovision Finale
20:15: PROSIEBEN — Free European Song Contest 2020
20:20: LTV1 — Eurovision 2020. In the studio Samanta Tīna (21:20 local time)
20:42: YLE TV2 — Yle Olohuone: Euroviisustudio (Eurovision Studio) (21:42 local time)
🌍 21:00: Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light (46 national broadcasters and YouTube)
22:00: BBC Radio 2 — Graham Norton, Douze Points (21:00 local time)
23:00: BBC Radio 2 — Eurovision Kings and Queens of Pop (22:00 local time)
23:00: BBC Two — The A-Z of Eurovision (22:00 local time)
23:10: France 2 — La grande histoire de l’Eurovision (The Great Story Of Eurovision)
23:10: RÚV — Eurovision-ball (21:10 local time)
23:35: RAI 1– Techetechetè – Notes of Europe
00:00 BBC Two — TOTP2 Goes Eurovision (23:00 on Saturday local time)
01:10 RÚV — Eurovision 1986 (23:10 on Saturday local time)
03:00: BBC Radio 2 — Ken Bruce’s Ultimate Eurovision Chart (02:00 local time)
Read our complete week-long Eurovision 2020 replacement shows guide.
Does anyone know why UK and Ukraine are blocked from watching the YouTube livestream of Shine a Light??? (from UK)
I actually dropped at the very beginning of the shows, when they started singing ‘what’s another year?’ implying we need to be patient, self isolate and wait for another year before things start turning ‘back to normal’. I mourn all 300k people who have lost lives to the virus; but the message that was broadcast yesterday looked suspiciously like yet another government-paid propaganda campaign of ‘stay at home – save lives’. Billions of people are stripped off of their basic human rights, and Eurovision hosts were tuning in into government agenda of – ‘you can surely live without those silly… Read more »
Some of the comments here seriously! It was never going to be the contest we where used to, but this was something more. I watched the show tonight and despite some initial hesitation, I actually really enjoyed it, it gave me hope and joy and actually surprisingly felt like Eurovision. The hosts are really good too (bring them back next year!) Was it Eurovision?? Yes, it actually was. There was no competition or staging tonight, but as Graham Norton said, it still feels like the Eurovision family. I feel like everyone was a winner tonight. The announcement at the end… Read more »
You say a lot of good words Darren. I was also unsure about how the programme would be, but it was an adequate alternative with a high technical standard. Different to what would have been shown, yes – but a good gesture of the EBU and Dutch broadcasters to provide a programme at the same time ESC would normally be shown. Far better than nothing at all and leave the participant broadcasters to provide all the alternative / replacement programming. I am so happy that the deal has been done so Rotterdam may host next year, and a lot of… Read more »
This felt like a funeral for Eurovison. Actually, even worse. It almost felt like Europe itself was dying with how dreary this show was. Like, I get that these are hard times but come on…nobody watching wants to be reminded every 30 seconds that we are going through a pandemic. It’s the only thing on the news anymore and the whole world is sick of hearing about it. We could’ve at least learned more about this year’s artists instead or something instead of this “I know this pandemic is hard blah blah blah” every other second.
The short clips before those snippets felt like postcards..
They literally made a Eurovision show.. just without the one key thing: happiness. We’re usually happy during the show.. I was in tears. They made it sound like the contest got discontinued.
It was quite happy though, and hopefully, especially towards the end.
Anyone talking shit about tonight’s show: what did you expect? To throw a party with lots of laughter? Or only broadcast the complete songs? Something like that would have worked if your audience consisted of JUST diehard Eurovision fans. Now the audience was so immense. The only way to have made a broad, continentwide audience unite tonight was a) the way it was done tonight (elegant, relevant, respectful, surely a bit dull but hey ppl care about other stuff now) or b) through a contest with voting, which (thankfully, would have been 5% of what it can be in 2021)… Read more »
This just had to be Molitva and What’s Another Year (including empty streets and studios). Can you imagine how misplaced Fuego and Lasha Tumbai would feel on a show in these times? (No matter how iconic)
Even in two weeks to organize, it was easy to broadcast the entire songs. If they were able to give us thirty seconds of video for each contestant, they could spend the three minutes. the contestants deserves to have their songs heard entirely, they too worked hard for that. It was their time.
It’s not easy actually. Europe Shine a Light is a culmination of all alternative Eurovision-related programming the EBU and its participating members have provided for much of the past two months, from small-scale mini-ESC’s in each countries to online home concerts and interviews, documentaries and other complimentary shows leading into the main show itself.
I watched it with people who aren’t die hard Eurovision fans, and they would never have watched the whole show if they broadcasted all the songs. Don’t forget that the audience isn’t only Eurovision fans.
46 songs in one night? No thanks.
i was not expecting a televised funeral
Not really, the show ended on a happy note, with Rotterdam still hosting 2021.
It’s interesting that you mentioned the tone being appropriate: I would argue that was exactly where they went wrong. Eurovision has always been about putting everything else aside for one night and focusing on the music, and while of course there had to be some acknowledgment of the pandemic, I think it would have been much better to take a tone of “Let’s come together and feel happy for a little while” instead of “Let’s mention over and over again how difficult this situation is.” There were certainly some strong moments in the show, but I found it very depressing,… Read more »
I would contrast it with the BBC’s come together: that was joyful, celebratory, entertaining. Shine a Light’s morose approach might have been appropriate in like late March, but now I don’t think it was a hit. And it was super weird to be reminded every minute by European singers to stay at home, as that contradicted government advice.
It is going to be just me, but I’m so done with all the negative comments some Eurovision fans post. We know it’s not Eurovision, but they tried their best. They made in my opinion a great show in just a few weeks.
Everyone can have their opinion, but all I see is negative comments and it’s boring and not good etc.
Why can’t we appreciate something for once, especially in this difficult time.
Makes me sad.
They just said , that they had only two weeks to organize it !
We could have had for all contestants what RAI did with Diodato and the Verona Arena.
That would have been special. Honoring. It could have been simple but at least with heart. Artists performing from their home countries.
We were shown only 30 seconds of that in the main show. Other broadcasters also did their thing with their artists as well.
Boring. Why not broadcast the entire songs? Since there weren’t the votes, it would have gone back in time. Instead we had an empty and uninteresting program.
Wiwijam 2020 was everything the Shine a light show should be. 2 hours full of misery and drone shots of empty streets is sad. Really sad.
We actually only saw drone shots in the first few minutes of the show.
you probably missed the molitva perfomance
Shine a light is the epitome of misery. Not what the world needs right now.
Boring alternative show. Hey, make Esc 2020 in autumn with voting. Virus is off and we can enjoy Eurovision later
Gosh… virus will not be off in autumn
This Shine a Light thing is really missing the mood of the continent right now.
of course you can not compare. What is wrong with you
I know but todays show should have been at least little bit interesting and surprising…):
So, what did you actually expect???
Dont really know, to be surprised?
That it will be out of the box…
what a sad show. What’s the point of this? Feels like covid19 pandemic promotion.
Why couldn’t they just take three hours and do show where we would hear all 41 FULL songs/performances and short messages from every artist. That show I would watch. This? It’s nonsense. Seriously I feel like this is another attempt to influence public opinion about covid19.
So pleased to see William on the big screen tonight! It was like seeing a friend on there, I jumped out of my chair – so pleased for you!
I’m sure I saw Edd on the UK Come Together show too? Sorry if I missed anyone else on the team!
I stop watching Europe shine a light. Soul was missing. Passion was lacking. Feels cold.
I wish I cuold enjoy it like Wiwi jam at home or Spain’s pre-party at home
I agree. There’s no attention to 2020 songs. This is so sad… 🙁
Same here, could not force myself to watch beyond the first 15 minutes. I don’t think that a tiny scrap of the music video gives participants enough of justice. The whole show feels so stuffed and sterile
It’s a wasted opportunity to do something joyous; instead it’s miserable.
The show was prepared in 12 days,
I think it was a great instead of no Eurovision 2020 feeling at all
Dana was super on Pointless. She got through to the final and even plugged the new EP by her quiz partner SuRie. Classy.
France 2 documentary is already available on France TV website (don’t know if it works outside France) :
https://www.france.tv/spectacles-et-culture/pop-rock-electro/492311-la-grande-histoire-de-l-eurovision.html
Italian television – RAI 1 are featuring Italian Eurovision artists since 2015, starting at 20.35 tonight – not sure if this will be available outside of Italy or not. Just also noting that Francesco Gabbani’s ‘Occidentali’s Karma’ reached 240,000,000 views on YouTube today – Karma or what!
Anyone knows how I can watch the shows in Australia live?
Why the UK is having swedish contestants always everywhere? Sure Måns lives there but still
And Abba just won Eurovision Come Together, even though the UK gave Sweden no points in 1974
John Lundvik is born in London…
And he moved to Sweden at age 6, he is now 37 so not much of a connection other than that
I probably watch the Shine a Light show eventually, later. Not live. Because I am not that interested in it to be honest. To each hos own of course but I don¨t find heartfelt greetings and renditions of Love Shine a Light to be uplifting or entertaining. But I will watch it during autumn, when days are shorter and darker.
I really enjoyed the show. There were a lot of beautiful performances in great locations. I didn’t expect this.