{"id":453372,"date":"2026-05-17T11:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/453372\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T11:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T11:07:14","slug":"austrias-hosting-at-eurovision-2026-left-a-lot-to-be-desired-but-they-tried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/453372\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria’s hosting at Eurovision 2026 left a lot to be desired but they tried"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austria deserves nul points from Eurovision fans\u2026 it has done a terrible job of hosting this year\u2019s contest. Almost every element has failed to hit the right note. The biggest problem has been the hosts. I\u2019m sure they\u2019re trying their best, but they\u2019ve failed to impress most viewers. <\/p>\n

Victoria Swarovski looks amazing and is pretty polished, but she\u2019s hardly memorable. And her co-host, Michael Ostrowski, has been dire, with his jokes seemingly falling flat. <\/p>\n

Together, they were received so poorly that even Graham Norton was openly mocking them tonight, as he said (via Metro<\/a>): “\u2018Presenting Eurovision may not seem like rocket science, but wait \u2019til you see these two. You will see more of them tonight than you may want to.”<\/p>\n

\"hosts<\/p>\n

EBU \/ Sarah Louise Bennett<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services<\/a>
<\/p>\n

And a lot of other viewers thought that, despite their best efforts, they didn’t gel too well, as one person said on X<\/a>: “That interval act was brilliant… saved us from the horror that has been the hosts. Sorry Austria, even though they try, those two really don’t work.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a second commented<\/a>: “Oh fuck its the hosts again with the Austria\/Australia thing again…. just… no please… lets not.”<\/p>\n

Getting the hosts right is so important. When the UK hosted the contest in 2023 on behalf of Ukraine, Hannah Waddingham was at the helm, and she wowed Europe with her charm and charisma. <\/a>When the contest is in Sweden, which happens pretty regularly these days, Petra Mede is often drafted in to host, making her a Eurovision veteran at this point. <\/p>\n

Another issue has been the semi-finals lasting so long. When you\u2019ve got only 15 acts, there\u2019s no need for the broadcasts to run for more than two hours. I love Eurovision, but even I was bored and wanted them to end.<\/p>\n

\"eurovision<\/p>\n

Alma Bengstonn (EBU)<\/p>\n

Related: Eurovision fans demand one act perform again after “technical issues”<\/a><\/p>\n

One of Austria’s biggest blunders has been the interval acts. They\u2019ve been really poor. The tedious and silly Eurovision quiz fell flat on Tuesday. It looked cheap and felt like filler. And yet they did it again on Thursday. It was a baffling decision.
<\/p>\n

The medley of former acts tonight was the only interval act worth watching, and even that wasn\u2019t that good, given it was done to mark the 70th contest.<\/p>\n

Viewers have been left disappointed by what they say, as one person said on X that they hoped “Austria really looks back on their host job of Eurovision”, while another wrote: “The main takeaway from tonight is that Austria must never host this again.”<\/p>\n

However, while there were some detractors, others were more complimentary, calling it “amazing”, with someone particularly praising the music, adding: “This is my type of music. And just these playful joyful songs is German language fitting the best! Well done.”<\/p>\n

When Austria hosted in 2015, it did an incredible job. Back then, they had Eurovision sensation Conchita to add a bit of sparkle to the proceedings. But this year hasn\u2019t worked. <\/p>\n

Hopefully, next year\u2019s host country can learn from Austria\u2019s mistakes.<\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Living Legends, a collector’s edition exploring the royal family, is here! Buy The Royals in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austria deserves nul points from Eurovision fans\u2026 it has done a terrible job of hosting this year\u2019s contest.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[131891,181831,196736,1105,196735,1107,93,61,60,184510,1135,196734,282],"class_list":["post-453372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-digital-spy-features","tag-collection-eurovision","tag-collection-eurovision-features","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-359f0500-9312-4cf0-bc3a-23c96f8e5358","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-austrias-eurovision-2026-hosting-left-a-lot-to-be-desired","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453372","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=453372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}