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Woeful Wogan names the nation's wrong choice for Eurovision
Updated 11:38am on 19 Mar 2007He has spent many years poking fun at the contestants in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Now Terry Wogan has had his comeuppance after making a spectacular blunder on the show to decide this year's UK entry.
Millions of viewers saw the 68-year-old broadcaster announce the wrong winner on BBC1 on Saturday night.
Wogan blurted out the name of losing finalist Cyndi Almouzni, leaving co-host Fearne Cotton to quickly step in and announce the real winner, the pop quartet Scooch.
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Confusion: Scooch congratulate Cyndi, but Fearne declares Scooch the winners
As confusion reigned, a disappointed Miss Almouzni was hurriedly ushered off stage, leaving Scooch to celebrate their victory in the phone-in vote.
Yesterday the BBC apologised for the gaffe, saying: "This is live TV and unfortunately sometimes these things do happen."
And in a reference to the TV phone-in scandal embroiling a number of broadcasters, director-general Mark Thompson said: "I think they were trying so hard to get the phones right that something else must have gone wrong.
"Whoever's fault it was, I am sure it was not Terry Wogan's."
The contest descended into farce as viewers rang in to vote for their Howour busy favourite contender from a field including Justin Hawkins, former lead singer of rock band The Darkness, former Atomic Kitten Liz McClarnon and ex-East 17 singer Brian Harvey.
They were narrowed down to two finalists - 22-year-old Miss Almouzni, who sang a solo ballad called I'll Leave My Heart, and Scooch, who enjoyed a top ten hit seven years ago but then disbanded.
The group reformed for Eurovision with the novelty song Flying The Flag, which they performed wearing airline steward outfits.
Scooch, who like to bill themselves as "this generation's Bucks Fizz", will now go through to the international contest in Helsinki in May.
It emerged yesterday that the BBC could be fined hundreds of thousands of pounds for its part in the TV phone-in scandal - a prospect described as a 'wake-up call' by Mr Thompson.
The media watchdog Ofcom, which is investigating the alleged phone rip-off, has warned it could fine the broadcaster up to £250,000 of licence-payers' money.
The inquiry was triggered after viewers were asked to phone in to the 'live' Saturday Kitchen programme even though it had been pre-recorded.
Blue Peter was also affected after 13,862 viewers rang in to a competition to win a toy but after a 'technical fault' a girl visiting the studio was awarded the prize.
Two winners are declared
Scooch perform their winning entry
Reader views (9)
For a brief moment there was hope then tacky pop won again.
So none of the songs were particularly brilliant but Scooch? Seriously?
I think Terry Wogan just assumed Scooch wouldn't beat Cyndi. Many prayed.
Looks like we're heading for a Eurovision plane crash.
At least they'll know what to do.
- Lauren, Leicester, 19/03/2007 15:24
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"Scooch, who like to bill themselves as 'this generation's Bucks Fizz'"
Oh great, because Bucks Fizz were fantastic, so good in fact that they've had um, er, oh... I'll get me coat.
- Trevor Roll, London, 19/03/2007 11:14
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It wouldn't be Eurovision without Terry making snide comments and then upstaging the sacrifical lambs by making an even bigger fool of himself; than the entries did with their diabolical twee songs. All entries were stupendously rubbish; a bit like Comic Relief X Factor. It's what the Beeb does well; cheesy campness with lashings of luveeness. Dahling!
- Geoff Allibone, Paignton, Devon, 19/03/2007 10:29
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Frankly I don't think we deserve anything more than nil point for this load of rubbish. Maybe Wogan was hoping that the British public hadn't been so foolish as to vote for such tosh!
- Pa, London, 19/03/2007 10:26
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From the first moment he spoke it was obvious that Wogan was drunk. His pauses before announcing each name were excruciatingly overdone by someone who'd left his judgement in the bar.
- Jimmy Young, London UK, 19/03/2007 10:17
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No doubt Terry was trying to save the UK the humiliation of having this sub-par steps (who would have thought such a thing even possible!) represent us in an already pointless contest.
- Jason, Surrey, UK, 19/03/2007 09:55
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And just how much was Teflon Wogan paid for this disaster?
- Jack Gamon, Sussex, 19/03/2007 09:54
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I've only caught a glimpse of this act, but can already hear the chorus of "Angleterre, nul points".
- Marianne, SW France, 19/03/2007 09:42
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Come in Terry, your time's up.
- Ted, Shetland, 18/03/2007 15:52
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