'Eurovision's Massive Rule Change Will Allow American Viewers To Vote

Eurovision 2023 is going to be one of the history books. The 2022 contest winner, Ukraine, will not be hosting in the home country due to the continuing attacks by Russia. Instead, the contest will be held in the runner-up country, the U.K., in Liverpool, as a joint broadcast between the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA: PBC) and the BBC. But that’s not the only significant alteration for this year’s upcoming contest. Once again, the European Broadcast Union (EBU) updates who can vote when and how much the public vote is weighed against the professional juries. But a new addition allows people to vote worldwide, not just in Europe.

The change is mainly due to “irregular voting patterns” in six jury votes identified during the 2022 contest. These irregularities did not change the outcomes of the contest (they occurred in the semi-finals). Still, they did result in jury votes being removed from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, and San Marino. The upshot is that juries will not be involved in the semi-finals in the future. The popular vote will exclusively decide those who make it to the Grand Final. As last year, the Grand Final will be a 50/50 split between the popular and jury votes.

But the most significant change is who makes up that popular vote. For the last 66 years, voting has been exclusively the province of those countries competing, making it a European win voted by European viewers. (Well, European viewers, plus Israel and Australia.) But this year, the EBU will open voting to a worldwide audience. Viewers in non-participating countries will not be able to vote via mobile (like people vote via mobile anymore), but you will able to vote online.