The preselection heats of the Dutch Nationaal Songfestival and the final will take place on Saturday evenings in February and, concerning the final, on March 1. All programmes will be broadcasted live at the second public channel, at the same time the commercial broadcaster RTL4 will broadcast the preselections of the popular programme Idols.

The past years, the Nationaal Songfestival had between two and four million viewers. The first edition of the Idols gala had around two million viewers. RTL4 writes: “this year, the public broadcaster found out the Nationaal Songfestival has potentials and it looks more like a talent scout now, just like Idols”. Remarkable, because the used format is already being used since a few years and Idols is relatively new.

Nationaal Songfestival anchorman Willem van Beusekom said that “the dates for the Nationaal Songfestival were known since a year, long before Idols was planned”, suggesting it might not be a coincidence.