Lots of stuff starting to emerge about The American Song Contest coming to NBC next year. That it’ll be awful is probably a given.
However some stuff has come out regarding the format that’s a bit more interesting.
“There will be a series of qualifying heats to determine which states and territories move forward, followed by March Madness-style semi-finals and the ultimate grand final where the winner will be crowned.”
This does not sound like the Eurovision. It does, however, sound very much like Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s extremely popular national song selection competition, but I guess that doesn’t quite have the same brand recognition.
The Melfest executive producer/supervisor (2002-2021) Christer Björkman (of Sweden 1992 fame) has a very heavy hand in the whole thing, which is probably why it’s more Melfest than Eurovision! I’m excited to see how it turns out, regardless of how terrible it’s sounding so far… A 5 minute song limit?! This better get reduced
Unexpected prog rock contest!
I will not let the very warranted cynicism for this event dampen my unwarranted enthusiasm for jt
I place down a doormat at the Bar; given that there are 56 entries, and given what we know about the realities of commercial US TV practice, how would you format this?
Not convinced that Saturday night prime time is as obvious a slot for it as it is across Europe (though I continue to content that it starts late enough, even in Western European time zones, that it must be a nightmare for our friends further east across Europe) but I don’t have any better ideas. I’d format it as a cautious five-parter: four heats, each with 14 songs, each sending a top three to a final. Episodes two hours long, so you get 84 minutes for content. Keep the songs to three minutes. A tight two minutes preamble, then seven seven-minute segments each with two songs, and that ought to take you about two-thirds through. I’d only let the 14 territories have individual votes, and the US at large one big vote worth 50%, in the style of the big televote reveal in the ESC. (All televotes, no juries – not that I think they should get rid of juries in Eurovision.) If you keep the territories’ results to a minute or so each, I reckon that could fit into two US hours in a way people would find comfortable.
But there are people who know far more than I do on the matter, and I’d love to know how the experts would format it…
Based on this upcoming year’s NBC primetime schedule I’m guessing Americavision is going as a replacement for the spring season of The Voice on Mondays (it’s being reduced to one season per year). I could see them using the Winter Olympics to promote it.
Dick and Dom are said to be recording a TV pilot soon based on their ‘Cash From Chaos’ podcast
Didn’t they film one ages ago?
Ah yeah, I read the article wrong – sounds like they’re shipping the pilot around at the moment.