On June 6, ahead of the June 10 UEFA Champions League final from Istanbul, Turkey, Paramount+ will premiere the first four parts of five-part docuseries “Destination: European Nights.” The docuseries follows prominent soccer journalist and CBS Sports analyst Guillem Balagué on his travels across Europe through the 2022-23 Champions League season, and its fifth part will air in the weeks after the final. Here’s a trailer for it:
And here’s more on what to expect from this series, from a release:
Beginning with September’s season-opening kickoff, Balagué travels tens of thousands of miles from Scotland to Israel to Finland to Georgia as well as all the powerhouse cathedrals of the game. Whether pitch side, in family homes or meeting local heroes in the places that define their towns and fandom, Balagué takes viewers on a unique journey with all of Europe buzzing on UEFA Champions League match nights.
DESTINATION: EUROPEAN NIGHTS is a travelogue covering a passion play unlike any other. It provides viewers with unique access and insight to the scenes, the people, and the players that provide the genius, drama and thrills that make the UEFA Champions League a must-see destination for every football fan in the world.
This is a similar concept to the Destination: Paris piece Balagué did for Paramount+ last year, but that was a single documentary that came out months after the final of the season it was covering (it was actually released at the start of the 2022-23 group stage). This time around, it’s a five-part series, with four of those installments coming out ahead of the final itself (and likely helpful for both showing how teams got to that final and hyping up that final). And the fifth and final part will come out within weeks of the final, when that will still be fresh news.
This is also part of the wider Paramount Global (the parent company of CBS/Paramount+) focus on soccer. In addition to live matches from the Champions League (including that final, which will air on both broadcast CBS and Paramount+), Serie A, and more, plus their associated studio programming, they recently launched free soccer-focused streaming channel CBS Sports Golazo. And on the documentary side, this is part of the Paramount+ “Stories From The Beautiful Game” collection.
That collection also currently includes The Only (Briana Scurry), Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, and Black And White Stripes: The Juventus Story. And this release also indicates another original documentary in that series will be coming to Paramount+ later in 2023. Soccer’s going to be a Paramount Global focus for a while, with their Champions League deal running through 2030, and it’s notable that they’re continuing to support their live rights there with studio programming and documentaries.
