{"id":442874,"date":"2026-05-11T07:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442874\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T07:51:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T07:51:12","slug":"when-its-on-and-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/442874\/","title":{"rendered":"When it&#8217;s on and how to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Eurovision Song Contest kicks off in Vienna this week, and for the first time since 1965, Ireland won\u2019t be part of it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/evoke.ie\/2026\/05\/06\/entertainment\/eurovision-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RT\u00c9 withdrew from the 70th edition<\/a> of the contest in protest at Israel\u2019s continued participation, citing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. <\/p>\n<p>The Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and Iceland are also boycotting the event, making it the largest walkout since 1970.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-Eurovision-Dara-Bulgaria.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1769334\"  \/>LONDON, ENGLAND \u2013 APRIL 19: Dara, who will represent Bulgaria at the Eurovision song contest performs during the London Eurovision Party 2026 at Outernet London on April 19, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Tristan Fewings\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>RT\u00c9 will not broadcast any of the three shows, meaning Irish viewers will need to find alternative ways to watch.<\/p>\n<p>When is it on?<\/p>\n<p>All three shows take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna and start at 8pm Irish time:<\/p>\n<p>Semi-final 1: Tuesday May 12<\/p>\n<p>Semi-final 2: Thursday May 14<\/p>\n<p>Grand Final: Saturday May 16<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2269534959.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1771151\"  \/>LONDON, ENGLAND \u2013 APRIL 02: Delta Goodrem during an interview and portrait session ahead of Eurovision 2026 on April 02, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>How can Irish viewers watch?<\/p>\n<p>With RT\u00c9 not broadcasting, Irish fans have two main options. BBC One will show all three live shows.<\/p>\n<p>The semi-finals will have Sara Cox and Rylan Clark on commentary while the grand final will have our own Graham Norton. <\/p>\n<p>The Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel will also livestream all three shows internationally with no commentary.<\/p>\n<p>Who\u2019s competing?<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-five countries are taking part making it the smallest field since 2003.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2018Big Five\u2019 has become the \u2018Big Four\u2019 without Spain, meaning France, Germany, Italy and the UK go straight to the final along with host country Austria.<\/p>\n<p>Austria won the right after JJ\u2019s victory in Basel last year with \u2018Wasted Love.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The show will be presented by Victoria Swarovski and Michael Ostrowski.<\/p>\n<p>Among the <a href=\"https:\/\/extra.ie\/2026\/05\/05\/entertainment\/supercomputer-predicts-eurovision\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">early favourites<\/a> are Finland\u2019s Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen with \u2018Liekinheitin,\u2019 who topped the annual OGAE fan poll. <\/p>\n<p>Popstar Delta Goodrem is competing for Australia but is fifth favourite at 14\/1. Other fancied tunes come from Greece, Denmark and France.<\/p>\n<p>Will Ireland be back in 2027?<\/p>\n<p>That remains unclear. RT\u00c9 has not indicated whether the boycott is a one-year protest or an open-ended withdrawal. <\/p>\n<p>Under EBU rules, there is no penalty for sitting out a single year, but a prolonged absence could affect Ireland\u2019s automatic qualification status in future contests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Eurovision Song Contest kicks off in Vienna this week, and for the first time since 1965, Ireland&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-442874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}