Weaver's Week 2026-02-08

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Next week, we'll be looking at The Traitors, television's biggest game show.

Later, a tribute to John Virgo, the University Challenge news, some new shows, and your chance to ask us something.

First, some philosophical and moral musings on questions around the Eurovision Song Contest.

Much has been written about the moral quandary of Eurovision in a time when (waves hands) all that is going on. What are we sure we think about these events? This column is going to approach the matter from the place of a moral person who wants to spread joy and happiness wherever possible. We are going to show our working, and how we've reached our conclusions, and the things we'll bear in mind going forward.

And we'll set something above the fold. This column has not yet reached a definitive conclusion, we do not know how much space we'll give to this May's Senior Song Contest; while neither "ignore it totally" nor "two full columns" feels likely, both options – and everything in between – remain on the table.

To help us organise our thoughts, we have three categories of statement:
AXIOM, something that this column believes to be true and unchallengeable
OBSERVATION, something that this column perceives to be true, but that someone else might disagree with
CONCLUSION, the logical result of combining previous statements.

AXIOM: Sharing culture helps to spread joy, give an insight into someone else's world, and deepen the bonds of humanity. We choose to believe this is something positive and worth striving for.

OBSERVATION: Broadcasters tend to be set up for a defined area, most often based on national boundaries.

AXIOM: The EBU is a union of broadcasters, which share programmes and technology and other knowledge.

CONCLUSION: The EBU, as a concept, is A Good Thing.

AXIOM: One major cultural mode – something very visible and ubiquitous – is the popular song.

OBSERVATION: When given a plethora of diverse songs, there is a regular response to order them in some way: to say one is your favourite, or another is your least-fave.

CONCLUSION: If there is a selection of popular songs, it is likely that this will embed a ranking.

CONCLUSION: A selection of popular songs will tend to converge to some sort of popularity contest.

CONCLUSION: The proposal for a Eurovision Song Contest, being a selection of popular songs put forward by member broadcasters, has a sound logical footing.

OBSERVATION: Entries will tend to reflect something of the member broadcaster's character or the performer or their group, whether through language or staging or intangible presence.

CONCLUSION: Entries may be seen as representative of the member broadcaster.

AXIOM: It is necessary to identify each entry uniquely.

OBSERVATION: Numbers may not work, as this could be confused with the score. Letters are not universal within the EBU area. Using the title of the song could be problematic, especially in the case of long or difficult titles.

OBSERVATION: The name of the broadcaster (or their initials) would work, so long as this is unique.

OBSERVATION: The name of the broadcaster's area would also work, so long as this is unique.

CONCLUSION: The choice to use the name of the broadcaster's area (country) is a choice.

AXIOM: National boundaries are a political fiction.

CONCLUSION: The choice to use the name of the broadcaster's country is therefore a political choice, because national boundaries are a political fiction.

AXIOM: National governments exist, and pursue policies.

OBSERVATION: Some observers may find the policy of a government to be morally objectionable.

AXIOM: It is possible to have a "boycott", and reduce or eliminate one's involvement with products and services one finds morally objectionable.

CONCLUSION: It is possible to boycott products and services associated with a government one finds morally objectionable.

OBSERVATION: Broadcasters are independent of any national government. The EBU holds this to be an axiom.

CONCLUSION: To boycott the product of a broadcaster based on the policy of its national government, it is necessary to satisfy oneself that the broadcaster is not independent of the government.

AXIOM: The EBU says that the Song Contest is an apolitical event.

OBSERVATION: The EBU embeds nations into the warp and weft of the contest; each event begins with a parade of national flags, and performances are referred to by the name of the country of the sponsoring broadcaster. And countries are an inherently political construct.

CONCLUSION: The EBU is lying to itself.

AXIOM: Following everything that's gone on in the last couple of years (see Weeks passim and internet ad nauseum), proposals have been made to slightly change the Eurovision Song Contest.

OBSERVATION: One may believe that these proposals are lukewarm, light, and don't go far enough.

AXIOM: The EBU says it is a democracy.

AXIOM: Democracy is a process, by which groups manage their own affairs through open and egalitarian public discussion. All voices are to be heard and considered.

AXIOM: The proposals were agreed upon by EBU member broadcasters.

OBSERVATION: There is discontent amongst broadcasters over whether a full discussion was had; specifically, the EBU declined to take a vote on a proposal to exclude one member from the competition.

OBSERVATION: There was a sufficiently large majority amongst EBU member broadcasters that this proposal was unlikely to succeed.

CONCLUSION: "Unlikely to succeed" is not the same as "actively defeated"; there was no vote on the specific question. The EBU has failed to be democratic, and its failure has caused discontent.

AXIOM: A number of member broadcasters have decided to withdraw from next year's Senior contest.

CONCLUSION: This is a shame, and we deeply regret their absence. The contest will be significantly and severely diminished without them.

AXIOM: Discrimination based on religion or ethnicity is a moral stain. Again, we choose to believe this.

AXIOM: The nation state of Israel faces historic and persistent discrimination based on its Jewish religion.

AXIOM: The EBU has tended to disregard the actions of governments when assessing broadcasters: for instance conflicts between Russia and Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia; repressive regimes in Hungary and Slovakia and (in recent history) in the United Kingdom and Poland.

CONCLUSION: We must exercise some caution when criticising the nation state of Israel, and guard against holding it to a different standard from other nation states.

AXIOM: The nation state of Israel suffered a massacre in late 2023. The society underwent a period of sustained mourning, and may well still be in the stages of grief.

AXIOM: Following the massacre in 2023, the government of Israel has been engaged in a prolonged conflict in Gaza. The government's actions in Gaza have been widely described as "genocide" in the narrow legal sense of the word. Arrest warrants are outstanding against some members of the government.

CONCLUSION: It is possible to boycott cultural works emanating from Israel; the moral stain from supporting the government's actions outweighs the moral stain from acting against the state. Equally, it is possible that a cultural boycott would continue the historic discrimination faced by Jews. Both options have significant moral problems.

AXIOM: The government of Israel has overtly and blatantly attempted to rig the televote in favour of the entry by its local broadcaster. This was certainly against the spirit of the rules. The EBU asserted that it was not against the letter of the rules; this decision is not so unreasonable as to be ludicrous.

OBSERVATION: The EBU says that if this happens again, the EBU will "not tolerate it and call it out".

CONCLUSION: Given the interference by the government, one could argue that the broadcaster's participation in the Song Contest is not independent.

• The EBU is a brilliant idea, and it is much more than the annual Senior Song Contest.
• The Song Contest does not need to use a nation to identify its songs, and certainly does not need to embed the nation as deeply as it does.
• By embedding the nation, the EBU associates the song with other matters external to the song.
• The EBU has failed to facilitate a clear democratic outcome to this discussion.
• It is not entirely clear that KAN is completely independent of the government of the state of Israel.
• Based on the actions of the government of the state of Israel, there are moral cases to oppose KAN's participation.
• There are also moral cases not to oppose KAN's participation, particularly if this would hold the broadcaster and/or government to a different standard than applied elsewhere.
• The contest is taking place anyway.

Logic will only take us so far. At some point, a moral decision needs to be taken.

This column has not yet reached a final decision we find satisfactory.

Factors that will influence us include the EBU's own attitude (which, frankly, has been woefully unimpressive since this whole problem began); the entry that emerges from KAN's selection; whether there is yet another attempt to rig the televote; whether the substantial moral argument against the actions of the government of Israel still persists. It is possible to consider the songs emerging through the Eurovision process outside the context of a contest; whether this is off-topic for a game show column is another question.

This column does not plan to offer a preview of the anglophone songs as we have done in recent years. We do plan to cover the competition shows in May, though it is unlikely to be at the scale of previous years. Our opinion may change based on events.

Bleh. There are no easy answers.

With Mastermind and Only Connect both in repeats, it fell to University Challenge to provide our hardcore quizzing. Imperial beat Warwick by 190-105. Warwick actually had the best of the opening moments, but Imperial slowly whittled away at the lead, and rather ran away with it in the final minutes, much to their evident relief. The teams combined for perfection on the labours of Hercules, and processes for titanium. Imperial finished getting exactly 50% of the questions they faced (and 48% of bonuses); Warwick were beaten to the buzzer and 41% overall (an encouraging 61% on bonuses).

Imperial now go on to face Sheffield; they're top of the quarter-finalists in Entertainment, Leisure, and Biology-Chemistry questions, but Sheffield have the advantage on Fine Art, Languages, and Geography. We reckon Imperial might have the advantage on the buzzers, and that could be enough for victory.

Warwick are worst of the last eight on Fine Art, but nobody is excellent on that topic; they're also very weak on History. Their strengths are in Maths and Physics, in Literature, and Leisure. We suspect Warwick will have what it takes to beat Darwin Cambridge in their match, then UCL or Manchester will provide a harder test.

On House of Games, a tale of two pairs. Lauren Oakley from Strictly Come Dancing and Patrick Grant from Sewing Bee resumed their competition, rooted as much in flirtation as in quizzing. The comedian Fatiha El-Ghorri was her usual relaxed self, and proved to be roughly as good at quizzing as Mr. Motivator – they didn't know much, but had plenty of fun doing it.

And we have this series' one contentious question: House of Games asserted that Chappell Roan dressed as Joan of Arc at the 2024 VMA ceremony; fans reckon it's more likely that the costume was an homage to Julie D'Aubigny, a sword-fighting opera singer who burned down a convent to rescue her lover. Roan has not confirmed her inspiration.

Quizzy Mondays takes a couple of weeks off, thanks to a live event. Normal service, including the remaining Mastermind heats, resumes on 23 February and in this column on 1 March.

John Virgo, the snooker player and broadcaster, has died. His greatest moment on the green baize was victory in the 1979 Preston Championship, overcoming a two-frame penalty for being late to beat Terry Griffiths 14-13. Earlier in the year, he'd reached the semi-final of the World Championship, losing the third-place play-off to Eddie Charlton.

Virgo was a consistent snooker performer, retaining his position just inside the top sixteen for years on end without ever threatening for another major title. Crowds loved him for his flamboyant showmanship, good-natured impressions of other snooker players, and the marvellous trick shots he performed. After retiring from the professional game in the 1990s, Virgo enjoyed a friendly on-screen relationship with Dennis Taylor. He remained a regular and valuable part of the BBC's commentary team; his final commentary came just a few weeks ago, in the Masters final.

John Virgo had two significant game show connections. He'll be remembered as the playing half of Big Break, a long-running entertainment featuring professional snooker players and civilian quizzers teaming up to win some decent prizes. Big Break ran through the 1990s, perhaps it was at its best in the Saturday night line-up alongside Noel's House Party and Casualty. Much earlier, JV had been a regular on Indoor League, which helped to remind people that snooker and pool were worth televising. John Virgo was 79, he's survived by his third wife and two children from earlier marriages.

ITV has commissioned another series of Farmer Wants a Wife. Now entitled Farming for Love, it'll be made by Pearson Television (Or Whatever They're Calling Themselves This Week). The show, which features farmers trying to find dates, previously aired on Channel 5 and on ITV a quarter of a century ago.

The Golden Elevators is coming to ITV. It's a series of this-or-that questions, where ten people debate as a group but individually decide which lift to take – to the penthouse and success, or to the basement where they might get lost in laundry chutes. Talpa Studios and Studio Lambert are combining for this show, which they claim to be be a "gripping psychological format" and almost certainly doesn't involve a dark knight barking at contestants to move.

The Way Out arrives on the Dave channel. It's an escape room show, pitting a team led by the comedian Ed Gamble against one headed by Nish Kumar. Mel Giedroyc is the moderator, and the series also features Dave regulars Chloe Petts, Lou Sanders, Amy Annette, and David O’Doherty. Four episodes of the series, which is being made by Tuesday's Child from Code van Coppens, an original Belgian format.

Ask The Week Anything Our astute readers may have noticed that the Week turned 25 at the start of this year. To commemorate this achievement, and celebrate the greatest game shows of the last quarter-century, there's going to be an Ask Weaver Anything livestream with Quizzy Dan on 22 February. We asked for interesting questions, but as the event has now passed, the ask form has been removed. Dan will pick the best and Weaver will answer.

This week, it's a new series of Masterchef The Professionals (BBC1, Tue, Wed). The Summit (ITV, Tue, Wed), Ben Shephard helps strangers up a mountain. Riddiculous (ITV, daytimes), more gentle brain-ticklers, and Welsh speakers in love on Amour a Mynydd (S4C, Tue, Wed). It's the grand final for House of the Year (BBC1 NI, Mon), and next Saturday finds the winner on The Masked Singer (VM1 and ITV network).

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