Eurovision Insight Podcast: Our Final Podcast From Turin Written by
Ewan Spence on
May 19, 2022 | 3 Comments
That was the Eurovision Song Contest that was. There’s a lot to talk about, and in a bumper podcast to close out the season, we’re going to talk about just a few of them. Stay up to date with all the news from Eurovision over the summer with the ESC Insight podcast. Add the RSS Feed to your favourite podcast application, or click here to follow us in iTunes and never miss an episode.
Eurovision Insight Podcast: Our Final Podcast From Turin
As the dust settles and the Eurovision community recovers at home, Ewan Spence is joined by John Lucas and Ben Robertson to look back at Turin and the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.
With Ewan Spence, John Lucas, and Ben Robertson.
The EBU’s statement on the irregular voting patterns, which was released after we recorded this podcast, can be found here.
British Academy (BAFTA) nominated broadcaster and writer Ewan Spence is the voice behind The Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast and one of the driving forces behind ESC Insight. Having had an online presence since 1994, he is a noted commentator around the intersection of the media, internet, technology, mobility and how it affects us all. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, his work has appeared on the BBC, The Stage, STV, and The Times.
You can follow Ewan on Twitter (@ewan) and Facebook (facebook.com/ewanspence).
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I did enjoy this. I agree with Ben’s and Ewan’s reservations about the jury reveal, so excuse me for making a variation on an old suggestion of mine:
When the televotes are ‘good to go’, start by listing the countries who the EBU already know have ultimately finished in places 25-11. But just give the place and country, no score. From 25th to 11th. There will still be oohs and aahs, but no embarrassing ‘zero points’ announcements. Then for the 10 remaining countries, make the usual announcement in ascending jury vote order. Reveal the actual scores for those minor placings after we know the winner.
Two more advantages of this system: 1) No-one can spoil the winning result by working out points left; 2) Ten minutes are saved
First of all, thanks again for all the fantastic coverage from Turin. I too so enjoyed seeing Sam and Chanel do so well and the incredible support for Ukraine and Kalush Orchestra. It was another hugely enjoyable contest.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the reveal of the televotes. I wish they’d go back to the old system of revealing them from the bottom up. It would take less time, especially if you only cut to the countries that are in the top 10 of the televote and go quickly through the last-11th place. The voting has always been about joy and celebration. You go to the reaction of the country that just received 12 points. The current sequencing for the televote is against that and, to me, smacks of the worst of reality TV. Unfortunately, it does seem to have been copied in several national finals.
The 2016-18 way is also superior because the last split screen has whoever’s on top versus the country with the highest televote score. This was especially apparent in 2019 and 2021 where (at least during the broadcast) Sweden and Switzerland looked like they had a chance to win. In reality they were 9th and 6th respectively, so the focus was on their disappointment without the consolation of knowing they won the televote.
I also think they need to trim the voting time and intervals. The voting window was 42 minutes and it took 46 minutes to get to the jury voting. I think one or two really fantastic interval acts and less voting time would work, Everyone wants to get to the scores and there’s plenty of time to calculate the televotes during the jury voting.
Australia was able to do an online vote this year instead of telephone and SMS voting. If that worked successfully, I wonder if it’s possible for San Marino?
A belated thank you to all at ESC Insight for this year’s coverage. And congratulations to Ewan for becoming the Guardian’s ‘Go To’ resident expert.
I did enjoy this. I agree with Ben’s and Ewan’s reservations about the jury reveal, so excuse me for making a variation on an old suggestion of mine:
When the televotes are ‘good to go’, start by listing the countries who the EBU already know have ultimately finished in places 25-11. But just give the place and country, no score. From 25th to 11th. There will still be oohs and aahs, but no embarrassing ‘zero points’ announcements. Then for the 10 remaining countries, make the usual announcement in ascending jury vote order. Reveal the actual scores for those minor placings after we know the winner.
Two more advantages of this system: 1) No-one can spoil the winning result by working out points left; 2) Ten minutes are saved
First of all, thanks again for all the fantastic coverage from Turin. I too so enjoyed seeing Sam and Chanel do so well and the incredible support for Ukraine and Kalush Orchestra. It was another hugely enjoyable contest.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the reveal of the televotes. I wish they’d go back to the old system of revealing them from the bottom up. It would take less time, especially if you only cut to the countries that are in the top 10 of the televote and go quickly through the last-11th place. The voting has always been about joy and celebration. You go to the reaction of the country that just received 12 points. The current sequencing for the televote is against that and, to me, smacks of the worst of reality TV. Unfortunately, it does seem to have been copied in several national finals.
The 2016-18 way is also superior because the last split screen has whoever’s on top versus the country with the highest televote score. This was especially apparent in 2019 and 2021 where (at least during the broadcast) Sweden and Switzerland looked like they had a chance to win. In reality they were 9th and 6th respectively, so the focus was on their disappointment without the consolation of knowing they won the televote.
I also think they need to trim the voting time and intervals. The voting window was 42 minutes and it took 46 minutes to get to the jury voting. I think one or two really fantastic interval acts and less voting time would work, Everyone wants to get to the scores and there’s plenty of time to calculate the televotes during the jury voting.
Australia was able to do an online vote this year instead of telephone and SMS voting. If that worked successfully, I wonder if it’s possible for San Marino?