The outcry since the Eurovision 2023 Grand Final has been vocal and two weeks on, hasn’t died down. Wherever Eurovision can be found on social media, one can also find posts about changing the voting system, giving the televote more weight in the final result, or doing away with the juries altogether.

Those advocating for a change to the jury vote (many of whom were chanting “Cha Cha Cha” in the Liverpool Arena and at their televisions two Saturdays ago) may not have considered the implications on the remainder of the scoreboard.

So, let’s see what would happen to the scoreboard if we give the televote a greater weight in the final! In real life, the current system makes the maths easy, as each televoting country and jury have 58 points to award to their 10 favourite entries. Once one changes the 50:50 ratio to something else, the voting system just doesn’t work anymore.

So instead of creating some new system where the televote awards, quinze points (for example), the following scoreboards keep the ratios as advertised. In 2023, there were a total of 4,350 points handed out by the juries and televote combined. This is the same for all these scoreboards as well. This means the 40:60 scoreboard has 1,740 points from the juries and 2,610 points from the televote.

Jury 45 : Televote 55 By giving the public just 10% more say in the voting, we already see some changes to the 2023 scoreboard, although they be minor. The Top 10 remains fairly untouched, with only Croatia squeaking in to knock Czechia out. Other movers up the board include Cyprus, Moldova, Poland, and Albania. Meanwhile, with such a small change to the voting ratio, Spain has already dropped 2 places.
Jury 40 : Televote 60 Now the public have 20% more power than the juries, and the scoreboard takes notice. Immediately one notices that Finland has cha-cha-chaed its way into first place by just 4 points over Sweden. For now, the rest of the Top 10 is still fairly consistent, but Australia begins to lose ground to Croatia. Elsewhere Poland and Moldova both jump 2 places each, while Spain falls another 2 places to 21st overall.
Jury 25 : Televote 75 In a scenario where the public had ¾ of the voting power, the scoreboard now looks quite different to the one from Liverpool. Käärijä’s lead over Loreen has now surpassed 100 points, while Poland and Moldova have climbed into the Top 10, knocking Estonia and Australia further down the board. Interestingly despite losing 2 points from the previous scenario, La Zarra has jumped two places to 15th overall. Of note, British Eurovision fans will not be pleased with this much televote power, as Mae Muller would have finished dead last had the juries only ¼ of the say.
Jury 10 : Televote 90 Just for fun, let’s quickly look at the board if the jury only had 10% of the final say. I would not want to have to devise a voting system where this scenario worked in real life however! Unsurprisingly, Käärijä’s win is now even more triumphant, almost 200 points ahead of Sweden. Norway is able to push into third place, bumping Israel down to fourth, and Italy out of the Top 5! The meagre 10% jury vote was able to save fan favourite Blanca Paloma from finishing in last place overall, as she did with the real televote.

Do you think Martin Österdahl should consider one of the options above, something else, or keep the 50:50 split as it is? You can let us know in the comments below or on our social media @escbubble! You can also relive the dramatic voting sequence from Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool below!