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Eurovision 2024: Stig Karlsen confirms that there was no decision made on reducing the jury power!

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Norway’s Head of Delegation, Stig Karlsen, who has previously defended the need to limit the power of jury in favor of the television audience, confirmed to The Euro Trip Podcast that no such decision has been made.

During the summer Stig Karlsen had revealed his plans on proposing to the EBU the alteration of the voting system, strengthening the weight of the television audience’s power on the total outcome.

The jury system at Eurovision should definitely be evaluated and the discussion is very welcome. There has been a difference (in the results) between the judges and the public vote in the past, but this year it was extremely wide. People obviously had a different winner. The fact that a jury of 185 people should have as much power as millions of viewers is questionable.

Stig Karlsen,  Norway’s head of Delegation

During the Eurovision Workshop that took place in Berlin on September 11 and 12, an Instagram story posted by Stig Karslen was enough to cause loads of comments, but also questions about whether the Head of the Norwegian Delegation finally managed to persuade with his proposal.

Eurovision 2024: Did Stig Karlsen succeed in reducing the power of juries?

Stig Karlsen does not confirm that any alteration on the 50/50 percentage has been made

Speaking on The Euro Trip Podcast, Stig Karlsen denies the rumor that he managed to convince his colleagues and especially the Reference Group of the Competition (which is in charge of deciding), to change the 50-50 system. When asked about the story in question, Karlsen said:

It was just a success of getting a schnitzel.

Nevertheless, Karlsen insists that the public should have a greater say in the final result and while he thinks that the presence of national juries is needed, he believes that a 60-40 system in favor of the television audience would be fairer.

His opinion on the voting system is strongly connected with his country’s course in the contest the previous years. Norway since 2016 has received 332 points from the jury and 826 points from the viewers.

https://youtu.be/PUHSM_vTqTI?si=4K1OLJ3OZLeVZp76

What is your opinion? Do you agree or disagree with Stig Karlsen? Stay tuned on EurovisionFun for all news!

Source: The EuroTrip Podcast

Norway: HoD says Eurovision jury system should be re-evaluated!

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After the Eurovision Final on Saturday, Stig Karlsen, Head of the Norwegian Delegation, said the current jury voting system should be re-evaluated.

Following the storm of reactions after the announcement of this year’s results, driven mainly by the difference in the vote of the televote (Finland) and the juries (Sweden), Mr Karlsen explained to Dagbladet that:

“The jury system in Eurovision definitely needs to be evaluated and the debate is very welcome. There has been a difference between the jury and the public vote in the past as well, but this year it became extremely distinctive. The people obviously had a different winner. The fact that a jury of 185 people should have as much power as millions of TV viewers is questionable”

Norway was represented by Alessandra with the song “Queen of kings”. Alessandra finished 17th in the jury voting, scoring 52 points, while getting the third highest score from the televote, taking the fifth place overall with a total of 268 points.

Source: Dagbladet

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Romania: TVR is considering suing EBU!

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A few days after the Eurovision 2022 Grand Final, EBU issued an announcement regarding voting irregularities during Semi-Final 2 ,in which the Romanian jury was among the juries detected for “irregular voting patterns”. The national broadcaster of Romania, TVR, has publicly reacted against the decision and the CEO of the broadcaster stated that participation for next year was up for a debate, while an online poll was launched asking audience members to vote if they want Romania to participate again in the contest.

The CEO of TVR, Dan Turturică, has made some further comments on the issue, saying that Romanian television is considering suing the European Broadcasting Union after the situation in the Eurovision final. He believes that EBU changed the rules “during the game” and he adds that currently an internal investigation is conducted by TVR, to identify why the Romanian jury votes were invalid while decisions will be made on the situation.

Mr. Turturică also added that while TVR is analyzing the regulations, there needs to be a careful treatment without damaging the relationship of the broadcaster with EBU.

 

Stay tuned to Eurovisionfun for all the latest updates on the issue!

Source: Stiripesurse.ro

Romanian broadcaster launches online poll about the future of the country in the contest

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As we previously reported, Romanian national broadcaster TVR is considering to withdraw from the contest after the announcement of EBU regarding irregular voting patterns of 6 national juries in the semi-final, including the Romanian jury.

As part of the show which TVR will broadcast tonight called Referéndum, the broadcaster has launched an online poll, asking audience to vote if they want Romania to participate again in Eurovision.

 

As of the time these lines are written, more than 5800 have voted and the results so far are:

YES – 53%

NO – 38%

DONT KNOW/DONT CARE – 7%

 

The poll and whether Romania should participate in Eurovision 2023 will be discussed on Monday 23rd of May at 9Pm on TVR 1. You can watch the show live through the video below:

 

Do you think Romania will take part in Eurovision 2023? Tell us in the comments!

The official announcement by EBU on voting irregularities during Semi-Final 2

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Moments ago EBU released an official announcement on “irregular voting patterns” during the second Semi-Final 2022, naming for the fist time the juries of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, San Marino.

Below is the full announcement:

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was an enormous success in bringing hundreds of millions of people across the world together in unity and celebration.

As communicated on Saturday 14 May, the European Broadcasting Union’s (EBU) independent pan-European Voting Partner detected irregular voting patterns in the jury votes of six countries taking part in the Second Semi-Final: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, San Marino.

The integrity of the voting, both by the national juries in each country and the viewers voting by phone or SMS, is essential to the show’s success. It is the EBU’s duty to all stakeholders, not least all 40 participating public service broadcasters, to ensure we can deliver a valid result at the end of each of the Live Shows. Any breach in the rules is consequently taken very seriously.

In the Second Semi-Final, it was observed that four of the six juries all placed five of the other countries in their Top Five (taking into account they could not vote for themselves); one jury voted for the same five countries in their Top 6; and the last of the six juries placed four of the others in the Top 4 and the fifth in their Top 7. Four of the six received at least one set of 12 points which is the maximum that can be awarded.

The pattern in question was detected as irregular by the pan-European Voting Partner and acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor, as five of these six countries were ranked outside the Top 8 by the juries in the 15 other countries voting in the same Semi-Final (which included three of the Big Five: Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom). Additionally, four of the six countries were ranked in the Bottom 6 of the other 15 countries voting in this Semi-Final. A jury voting pattern irregularity of such a scale is unprecedented.

 

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As stated in the Eurovision Song Contest Rules and in the Official Voting instructions of the Contest, if votes by National Juries present irregular voting patterns (as may be detected by the pan-European Voting Partner and acknowledged by the Independent Voting Monitor), the ESC Executive Supervisor has the right to remove the votes concerned for allocating the ranks and to replace them with a substitute aggregated result calculated automatically to determine the final country result of these countries in the Second Semi-Final.

Given the unprecedented nature of the irregularity detected in the Second Semi Final, the EBU in consultation with the pan-European Voting Partner and the Independent Voting Monitor decided, in accordance with the Voting Instructions of the Contest, to exercise its right to remove the votes cast by the six juries in question from the ranking allocation in the Grand Final to preserve the integrity of the voting system. Consequently, the same procedure was followed and the automatically calculated substitute aggregate result has been used to determine the final jury results of the six countries involved, in the Grand Final.

These decisions were approved by the Chair of the ESC Reference Group, the Contest’s governing board, and the Deputy Director General of the EBU in line with the requirements of the Voting Instructions of the Contest.

The EBU has since discussed the jury patterns with the relevant broadcasters and given them the opportunity to further investigate the jury voting in their countries.

The EBU reconfirms its decision to replace the jury votes for these six countries with a substitute aggregate result in both the Second Semi-Final and the Grand Final.

The EBU also confirms the final rankings of the 40 participants in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.

The EBU, its Members and the Reference Group will continue to collaborate closely on safeguarding the integrity and success of an event that has been a unique platform for creative talent over 66 years, and looks forward to continuing to entertaining audiences worldwide.

What are your thought on EBU’s announcement? How will the mentioned countries react? Tell us in the comments below!

Reactions continue over the cancellation of the voting of six juries!

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On Saturday night, during the Grand Final, the EBU sent out a vague statement saying it had identified “voting irregularities” in six unnamed countries after the second rehearsals of the Second Semi-Final. Their jury votes were cancelled and replaced with a ” substitute aggregated result for each concerned country for both the Second Semi-Final and the Grand Final (calculated based on the results of other countries with similar voting records)”

Understandably, the above treatment caused a reaction from these countries as there had been no prior information and they ended up seeing a different score from the one they had given themselves.

Romania

On Sunday morning, Romanian television posted a lengthy statement on the official Eurovision page, which among other things said

“Romanian TV is fully committed to participate in Eurovision 2022, paying the participation fee and preparing, together with the WRS team, a project that won the appreciation of the public”

“We were surprised to see that the result of the Romanian jury’s vote was not taken into account in the final ranking, with the organisers assigning a different score on behalf of our country’s jury”

“We clarify that the Romanian jury decided to give the maximum score to the Moldovan representatives”

Furthermore, TVR, asks the EBU for the exact reasons why they made the cancellation of their committee’s score and they are able to make amends in case they made a mistake.

Montenegro

The Montenegrin broadcaster reacted in the same way

“Following the announcements made on the Eurovision website, we would like to inform the public that we have sent a request for clarification to authorised representatives of the EBU”

“Following the submission of our jury’s vote, the relevant officials stated that the RTCG vote was conducted in accordance with the normal procedure, was legally certified by the EBU, and they saw no reason to suspect any form of irregularity. We therefore await a detailed answer to the question of our vote change.”

Georgia

Georgia’s broadcaster, GPB, has issued a statement regarding the removal of the Georgian jury’s votes from Eurovision 2022

“The Public Broadcaster met all the requirements, sent the official document and received the EBU’s consent that there were no possible irregularities”

“The Georgian jury gave its highest score, the 12 points, to Ukraine. However, when the results of the Final were announced, the 12 points from Georgia were given to the United Kingdom”

“The Georgian delegation had no interest in manipulating the results. It was of prime importance for our jury to secure 12 points for a deserving contestant, which in this case was the representative of Ukraine”

The Georgian public broadcaster remains in active communication with the EBU regarding the current situation and hopes that official answers will be provided soon.

To date, the EBU has not yet clarified the exact reason why the votes of the six juries were removed.

What do you think of all this? Could much of the confusion have been cleared up if the EBU had given more specific information from the start? We look forward to reading your views in the comments below!

Source: Wiwibloggs, Eurovoix

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