The King’s Coronation & Eurovision: How The BBC Is Gearing Up For Its Biggest Week Of Live Programing In More Than A Decade

deadline.com:

You wait 70 years for a Coronation and 25 to host the Eurovision Song Contest and then the two come along at once. Over the next eight days, the BBC will air two of its biggest live events of the past generation and the corporation has spent months gearing up for celebrations that are estimated to cost roughly £125M ($157.1M), the brunt of which is going towards King Charles III’s Coronation – kicking off tomorrow.

There is also the small matter of the BAFTA TV Awards, taking place the day after Eurovision next weekend. Multiple BBC execs have told Deadline that the coming week will be its biggest for live programing in more than a decade, going back to the summer of 2012 when the public broadcaster hosted London Olympics coverage and Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. “This is what you get into TV for,” says Kate Phillips, the corporation’s recently-appointed Director of Unscripted, who is overseeing the events and says the next seven days will be the BBC’s “biggest week of my lifetime in terms of planning and complexity.” Two contrasting acts of fate have led us to this week.

Last May, the UK finished second in Eurovision but soon after took on hosting duties as winners Ukraine were unable to front, while, in September, Charles’ mother Queen Elizabeth passed away and the Coronation was set by the Royal Household for eight months later.

When she took the job last May, the BBC didn’t know it was hosting either event but Phillips’ detailed her ambitions in her second round interview with Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore to oversee Eurovisionand her wish has come true in less than a year. “It’s definitely my biggest challenge but I love a challenge,” she says. “We’ve got so many other platforms and outlets to