The running order allocations for the two semi finals of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv (Ukraine) were announced this morning. This is of interest, as one of the factors that can shape a country’s hopes of winning, or doing well in, the contest is the position in the contest running order that they get to perform in, with the usual rule of thumb suggesting that a later draw position will significantly help a country’s hopes of doing well. Positions in the running order had traditionally been decided by a draw up to the 2012 contest. But since the 2012 contest in Malmo, participating countries have just drawn to decide whether they will perform in the first half or second half of a contest, with the Host TV producers then deciding the running order based on what combination of entries works the best in terms of producing a better TV show. (The Host country is the only one that draws to decide their position in the Final running order). That practice has also been used this year and the running order allocations for the two semi finals of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest were released this morning by the host broadcaster UA:PBC. This post has been updated following Russia’s withdrawal from this year’s contest.
Figure 1: Qualification trends by position in the semi-final running order at all Eurovision semi-finals between 2008 and 2016
As Figure 1 (above) shows, there have been notable differences between the different semi-final draw positions in terms of the number of acts that have successfully qualified for the contest final after having performed in these draw positions. (more…)
