Germany is going all-in on Eurovision 2026

Finals, documentaries and a lot of behind-the-scenes navel-gazing

Germany is not just preparing a national final for Eurovision Song Contest 2026. Oh no. The SWR, newly in charge of the German Eurovision machine, has decided that one show simply isn’t enough. What Germany really needs, apparently, is a three-hour selection show and not one but two Eurovision documentaries.

Because if you’re going to do Eurovision, you might as well do everything.

A three-hour German final (yes, really)

First things first: “Eurovision Song Contest – Das Deutsche Finale 2026” will take place on 28 February, starting at 8:15pm and running until roughly 11:15pm. That’s three full hours of Eurovision decision-making, snacks permitting.

It’s slightly shorter than last year’s marathon, which ran for three hours and fifteen minutes and ended with Abor & Tynna emerging victorious. Still, three hours is plenty of time for recaps, dramatic pauses, a celebrity sofa or two and at least one moment where someone says, “We need more time to vote”.

Fans can expect a long night. Meanwhile, countries like Finland or Sweden continue to calmly prove that you can pick a Eurovision entry in two hours without anyone suffering. But this is Germany. Efficiency has never been the point.

Eurovision, but make it documentary

Alongside the national final, SWR is also preparing “70 Years of Eurovision – The Documentary”, a 90-minute retrospective set to air on Das Erste and, of course, land safely in the ARD Mediathek.

A teaser already hinted at a very on-brand guest list: Conchita Wurst, fashion royalty Jean Paul Gaultier, and entertainer, comedian and occasional Eurovision points-giver Hape Kerkeling.

The internal language used to describe the project ticks almost every Eurovision bingo box imaginable. Eurovision is described as a “campfire moment”, “deeply political”, “emotional”, “shrill”, and still magically capable of pulling in around 170 million viewers. Subtlety, this is not.

Inside ESC 2026: behind the scenes, sort of

Then there’s “Inside ESC 2026 – The Road to the Final”, a more mysterious project that promises to take viewers behind the scenes of Germany’s Eurovision journey.

Details are… flexible. It’s listed as a 20-minute format, but also described as potentially running across up to three episodes. Whether that means three proper episodes or three very social-media-friendly mini instalments remains unclear. Either way, it’s clearly designed to feed the content machine around the time of the Eurovision final in May.

Think less “deep investigation”, more “we filmed everything, let’s see what fits on Instagram”.

Germany’s Eurovision era begins early

All of this was quietly outlined back in October during a five-hour Microsoft Teams meeting. Yes, five hours. Eurovision truly waits for no one.

Between a lengthy national final, a full-scale anniversary documentary and a behind-the-scenes series, Germany is making one thing very clear: Eurovision 2026 won’t just be a song choice. It will be a season.

Whether that season produces a result to match the effort remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: by the time Germany reaches Vienna, we’ll have seen, heard and documented absolutely everything along the way.

And honestly? That, too, is very Eurovision.

Source: SWR