Scott Mills and Rylan are both hosting Eurovision Night on BBC Radio 2 while Paddy O’Connell broadcasts the semis.
BBC Radio 2 – the home of Eurovision 2023 on UK radio – today announces that Scott Mills and Rylan will be the station’s presenters for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Grand Final which will be broadcast live on Radio 2 on Saturday 13th May. And for the very first time, Radio 2 will also broadcast the Eurovision semi-finals, which will be presented by Paddy O’Connell.
Eurovision superfans and Radio 2 presenters, Scott and Rylan – who have been involved in Eurovision coverage for many years – will be bringing their insightful and colourful commentary to the Grand Final on the network, broadcasting live from the centre of the action at Liverpool Arena. The UK is hosting the 2023 event on behalf of the 2022 winners, Ukraine. It will be the culmination of a week in the city for Scott and Rylan, as they are also providing TV commentary for the Semi Finals – both of which, for the first time in the UK’s Eurovision Song Contest history, will be broadcast live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Meanwhile, Scott’s afternoon show (Tuesday to Friday, 2-4pm) on Radio 2 will be coming from Liverpool all week, with Richie Anderson hosting the show on Tuesday and Thursday as Scott prepares to host the semi-finals on TV.
For the first time, this year Radio 2 will also be broadcasting the two Eurovision Semi-finals, with Paddy O’Connell hosting the network’s live coverage from the Liverpool Arena. In the first semi-final on Tuesday 9th May (8-10pm), fifteen countries are taking part with ten qualifying for the Grand Final on Saturday night. And on Thursday 11th May, Paddy returns with live coverage from the second of the semi-finals, with sixteen countries taking part and ten qualifying for the Grand Final on Saturday night. These shows will also be simulcast on BBC Radio Merseyside.
Rylan says: “Eurovision is my favourite time of the year, I cannot wait! And I’m so excited and absolutely buzzing to be hosting the Eurovision Grand Final on Radio 2, the biggest and best music event in the world, with my partner-in-crime Scott Mills. We can’t wait to bring listeners closer to the action than ever before, with all the fun, excitement and backstage gossip from what promises to be an unforgettable night.”
Scott says: “I can’t begin to describe how excited I am to be presenting the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest on Radio 2. I’ve had the great pleasure of being involved with Eurovision in various ways over the years, from commentating alongside Graham Norton to singing karaoke with the contestants, but presenting from the Grand Final in Liverpool is the ultimate childhood dream come true. Rylan and I will be going all out so please come and join the party live on Radio 2!”
Paddy says: “I’m walking on sunshine to join Radio 2 live in Liverpool hosting the Eurovision semi-finals. Sam Ryder broke the UK Eurovision spell last year and I hope it’s magic for Mae in 2023.”
Helen Thomas, Head of Radio 2, said: “The 2023 Eurovision Song Contest will be a very special event and who better to host Radio 2’s coverage of the Grand Final than our very own Scott and Rylan. And I’m delighted that for the first time, Radio 2 will be bringing our listeners all the drama and fun from the semi-finals, hosted by Paddy O’Connell. With years of Eurovision experience under his belt, Paddy is the perfect guide for fans and also those who may be discovering Eurovision for the first time.”
BBC has released its top earners and two gay men are featured in the top 10. The top-earning lesbian doesn’t feature.
The BBC’s gender pay gap has been released and shows that the top 12 earners are all still men, with Graham Norton (up to £609,000) and Nick Grimshaw (up to £409,000) featuring in the top 10. Further down the list of the top 22 earners include two other openly gay men, Scott Mills (up to £289,000) and Evan Davis (up to £259,000)
There are no out women or trans people in the top 20. The highest paid LGB woman is Clare Balding who is now reported to be earing up to £189,000. Last year the BBC reported that she was earning up between £150,000 and £199,000.
Norton’s wage was reduced from up to £899,000 in this new list, while Nick Grimshaw’s wage has actually increased from up to £399,000.
Last year the BBC used multiples of £50,000 to denote its staff’s salary rather than give accurate figures, this year that has been deceased to multiples of £10,000.
Just over a handful of openly LGB stars are paid more than £150,000 per year the BBC’s annual report reveals.
Graham Norton, who hosts the Eurovision and his own show on the BBC takes the top slot earning somewhere between £850,000 and £899,999 after the BBC released its annual report today. For the first time it includes the salaries taken by some of its biggest stars. Graham was followed by Radio 1 host Nick Grimshaw who earns between £350,000 and £399,999 per year. His fellow presenter Scott Mills earns £100,000 less.
The BBC used multiples of £50,000 to denote its staff’s salary rather than give accurate figures.
Elsewhere, Strictly Come Dancing‘s judges Bruno Tonioli and Craig Revel Horwood are not equally compensated for their stints on the show. Horwood takes home up to £199,999 whilst Bruno trumps with a take home of up to £299,999.
There are no openly trans stars paid over £150,000 on the BBC’s books.
Clare Balding was the only openly lesbian to be featured on the list and she takes home up to £199,999.
Overall 96 on-air stars were featured in the new annual report from the corporation.
TV and radio presenter Scott Mills has confirmed he is to star in the new series of Strictly Come Dancing.
Scott confirmed the news live on the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show this morning with Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel Horwood in the studio, surprising fellow presenter Chris Stark with the announcement.
Readers of TheGayUK might remember Scott from his 2011 documentary The World’s Worst Place To Be Gay, in which he travelled to Uganda. We also had the pleasure of interviewing him in 2012 about Coming Out.
Award-winning Scott has been entertaining the nation on Radio 1 for over 15 years and is one of the longest-serving and most popular presenters on the network. He currently hosts the weekday early afternoon show on the station from 1pm to 4pm and the weekly Official Chart Update show. On television he has recently presented The National Lottery Live on BBC One and also hosts annual coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest on BBC Three.
Scott said, ‘My listeners are so used to me playing pranks that they’re probably going to think this is just another one. It’s not, I really am doing this! I’m honoured be part of the biggest show on television and hoping this could be the start of a brand-new skill for me. When I was younger, my Nan danced the foxtrot and waltz and it would be great for me to learn those dances, but I will be out of my comfort zone. Whatever happens, I’m really looking forward to the weekly fake tans!’
Scott joins Frankie Bridge, Judy Murray, Alison Hammond, Thom Evans, Simon Webbe, Mark Wright, Sunetra Sarker, Jake Wood and Steve Backshall in this year’s battle for the ballroom.
Here are seven more stars of screen and radio who you didn’t know were gay or bisexual.
Matt Dallas
Matt Dallas, star of the cancelled Kyle XY came out in a social media kind of a way in January 2013, when he Tweeted that he was going to marry his long-time partner, musician Bill Hamilton – and posted a photo of his boyfriend for the world to see.
Grimshaw and Mills, sounds like it could be a romance book publisher, however this morning the gay presenters and friends of BBC Radio 1 were snogging and stripping down for bath time, though not with each other.
Grimshaw and Mills, sounds like it could be a romance book publisher, however this morning the gay presenters and friends of BBC Radio 1 were snogging and stripping down for bath time, though not with each other.
Nick Grimshaw’s Breakfast show raised over £250,000 after they embarked on a morning of Red Nose Day challenges, which all started with Sara Cox, Greg James and Nick stripping off to reveal their ‘swimwear’ look, which got the show’s fundraising efforts off to a flying start raising £10,000.
Later on in the programme the team were joined by openly gay Scott Mills, who was made to don a pair of roller skates and told he would be randomly pushed into three masked celebrities. Whichever person he bumped into he would have to kiss – “with full on tongue.”
The three celebrities were revealed as Olympian Louis Smith, Vanessa Feltz and Union J’s Josh. Scott landed on Vanessa and the two enjoyed a lingering kiss, which Mills described as ‘soft and tender’.
It was only after the snogging that the challenges became harder as Grimmy was told by Domino singer Jessie J that he would have to face his worst fear and bathe with over 2 million mealworms, if they raised £120,000, which of course they did.
Grimmy screamed and whined throughout saying: ‘Ooh. It’s horrible! They stink. They absolutely stink. They’re biting my ankles.’
He added: ‘You have to text now. Text the word HELP now to 70005. They are all over me. It’s horrible.’
Nick will now have to dye his famously massive brown hair style to a fabulous shade of pink, after he vowed he’d make the startling change if the breakfast team fundraised £250,000. The listeners of Radio 1 were clearly backing the makeover idea. By the time the show came off air, the team had hit their target.
The team tweeted: ‘we’ve raised a quarter of a million pounds – thank you so much from everyone here at @R1Breakfast and @bbcr1 we love you! #RedNoseBreakfast.’
To make a donation text the word HELP to 70005. Texts cost £5 per message plus standard network rate or donate at comicrelief.com or rednoseday.com.
BBC Radio One’s award winning DJ Scott Mills, came out in 2001 telling the Guardian that he “would like to be accepted as a normal bloke who is gay and is on the radio and television.”
(C) BBC – Photographer: Ray Burmiston
The Gay UK’s Domenico Sansalone sits down over tea with Mills to discuss his recently published autobiography Love You Bye and discovers why this normal bloke loves Rihanna but hates Paris (the city, not Hilton).
TGUK: What inspired you to write your autobiography?
SM: A publisher came to me a year and a half ago and said, “do you want to do a book?” Initially, I said no because I just thought you see so many autobiographies out there and you think why have they done that, they’re 10? He said to me to go away and think about it and I did and I kind of collated a few little stories and thought there’s some quite good ones and quite a lot has happened. You don’t realise until you stop and think about it, how much has happened. So eventually, I said yes.
TGUK: How full on was writing the book?
SM: I wouldn’t do it again! I found it quite hard to write a book. The original one that I wrote, I showed to Radio One and they were like, no it’s crap. So that kinda knocked my confidence a bit. Then I decided to re-write the whole thing and I had about two weeks to go until the deadline. So I just decided to write it in the way that I would speak and from there it was one hundred percent better. It’s good now because there are some funny bits. Now it sounds like me but I found the whole thing a bit of a head f**k.
TGUK: So you’re not going to pull a Jordan or Geri Halliwell and write multiple autobiographies?
SM: Jordan’s done loads, like seriously? I remember, she came into the studio to do my show one time and she had just released the latest one of many Jordan books and I asked her as a bit of a joke to read some excerpts from it. Luckily for her it wasn’t live. She was going ‘and then I slept with him and it was great” and then she’d say “see I wouldn’t have written that” and I’m thinking sorry I thought you’d written that yourself!
I love that Geri Halliwell has had enough to say to write two. I love her! She’s proper mental, isn’t she?
TGUK: Did you read any other celebrity autobiographies as research?
SM: Yes, I did. I’ve often been guilty of reading them anyway because I love a bit of trash. Do I want to read Sharon Osbourne’s book? Yes, I do! I’ve been on a lot of planes and read a lot of good ones. I thought Chris Evans was really good. I find people that have got something to say and have done stuff are more interesting than reading a book about, no offense, an X Factor winner, because that’s not that interesting to me. One Direction will look back and think I wish I hadn’t written that book.
TGUK: Have your friends and family read the book yet?
SM: They have. I found that the weirdest part. I was less worried about my friends reading it because they actually know a lot about it but there are some stuff in there that I don’t think I have ever told my mum about. I’m kind of dreading ringing my dad because I think he’s just read it and there’s nothing bad in it but there is some stuff that he might be uncomfortable with. I’ll make that call later…
TGUK: What did your boyfriend think?
SM: I think it was quite difficult for him to read about ex-lovers. I think to read it, as the current boyfriend, is quite hard. So yeah, he was a bit funny about that. I fully prepared him but there is a lot to think about.
TGUK: So no wedding plans yet?
SM: It’s not that I’m against it, I just can’t imagine myself getting married. I don’t know why? It’s not that I would never do it. I actually think that if I saw a couple other [gay weddings] then I would think, okay I get it now. It’s just I can’t visualise it in my head.
TGUK: Rupert Everett upset a lot of people recently by saying he can’t imagine anything worse then two men raising a child together. What are your views on that?
SM: I don’t know why he said that? I wouldn’t expect him to say that. The more my life goes on, I can imagine children more than getting married. I’m really good with kids.
(C) BBC – Photographer: Ray Burmiston
TGUK: Speaking of celebrities, who has been your favourite celebrity to interview?
SM: I actually think, Rihanna. She works f**king hard. I’ve interviewed her more than most in the last three years and every time she’s always incredibly professional. She always has something new to say and something interesting to say every time. I have a girl crush on Rihanna.
TGUK: What male celebrity do you have a crush on?
SM: Ryan Gosling, I’m crushing on him a bit.
TGUK: Who would you like to interview that you haven’t yet?
SM: Madonna, I think she would f**king eat you alive. I think I want to do it whether it’s enjoyable or not just to say that I’ve done it. One of my friends said that Madonna told her, “you’re going to have to do better than that,” after she asked her first question. I’ve spoken to several people who have interviewed her and they said it was horrendous.
TGUK: Our previous interviewee, Patricia Kaas wanted to ask you what you think about Paris?
SM: I’ve been and I absolutely hated it. I know that everyone is like, it’s beautiful and it’s the most romantic place in the world. I don’t get it? I don’t understand why it is? I find it confusing and expensive and not pleasant to be in.
TGUK: We also have some questions from our readers. Do you have any dating tips?
SM: Hilarious! I don’t think I have ever really been on a date. That’s not true, I went on a blind date once, which was the worse idea ever. You know when your straight friends go, “you two are both gay you’ll be great together!” I had this awkward date with this guy where we literally just sat at this restaurant and I was trying my hardest to make conversation and I had nothing to say at all. We had nothing in common. So I don’t really have dating advice because I don’t really feel like I’ve been on a date.
TGUK: How did you meet your boyfriend?
SM: I met my boyfriend through friends, which is much easier.
TGUK: You talk in the book about your struggles with anxiety and alcohol. How have you gotten through some of the darkest periods of your life?
SM: I seem to have this inbuilt thing of just being able to carry on. That’s a really hard question. With the depression and stuff, it helps to talk to people who have had that as well because it’s actually quite comforting. Sometimes you feel like you’re the only person in the world that has that. So I’ve found that talking to people you trust is the easiest thing and most comforting thing.
TGUK: Can you come back to Southampton?
SM: I’m actually going this week. I’ll be signing the book at Waterstone’s West Quay. I have to say the gay scene there is awful. I mean seriously, they had a club and they shut it down.
TGUK: You’re in pretty good shape but you struggled with your weight in the past. How did you turn that around?
SM: I was never really bothered about it and then suddenly I became really bothered about it. I think it was when I moved to London and I just realised that there weren’t as many fat people. In my early twenties, I went from being really fat and then went completely the other way and went on loads of weird diets and now I just want to be healthy and look all right and not feel big.
TGUK: Now that you have started doing more television, are you suddenly more aware of your appearance?
SM: Massively. I do a fair bit of TV and because I am my own worse critic and I’ve seen myself on TV a couple years ago and I thought, f**k I wouldn’t have put myself on TV looking like that!
TGUK: One of our readers called you so handsome so the boy-next-door look is working for you. Now that you’ve published your autobiography, what’s next?
SM: I’m busy hosting my Radio 1 show and I’m also in talks to do a documentary about gay bullying. There is so much [bullying] happening with Twitter, it will be interesting to take a look at that.
Scott Mills autobiography Love You Bye is on sale now. Scott Mills is also on BBC Radio 1 weekdays from 1PM – 4PM
