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18th Feb 2016

The way the Eurovision winner is picked is being completely changed this year

Carl Kinsella

Come on, Nicky Byrne.

The Eurovision posted a video to their YouTube channel today explaining the big changes they are making to the voting system (which, for many of us, is the far more entertaining part of the night).

Up until now, votes by the country’s jury panel and the country’s public have been presented as one – with each accounting for 50% of a country’s overall points awarded (from 1-8 points, 10 points and, of course, douze points).

This year, the two will be separated, with all total public votes from the 43 countries combined and revealed after the jury vote – building far more tension and suspense, making the winner unclear until the very end of the show.

This way we still get the fun of going to correspondents in each country, with the really important votes being withheld until the very end. Individual breakdowns of the public vote will be accessible on eurovision.tv afterwards.

This handy video explains it all.

Doing this could also remove the prospect of the dreaded nul points, as public biases towards neighbouring countries won’t outweigh the jury’s vote now that the two are counted separately.

Topics:

Eurovision