Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final Extended Voting Analysis

Host country: Portugal (RTP)
Venue: Lisbon Arena, Lisbon, Portugal
Hosts: Filomena Cautela, Sílvia Alberto, Daniela Ruah & Catarina Furtado
Date: Saturday 12 May 2018

My main Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final review, including the opening act, songs, interval acts, jury voting and rapid announcement of the televoting results is available here. This supplement is intended to be read in addition to, and not instead of, that report.

N.B. Any use of "tonight" or "this evening" throughout this post means Saturday 12 May 2018. Any use of "Tuesday" means Tuesday 8 May 2018, whereas any reference to "Thursday" means Thursday 10 May 2018. All times in this post are in BST.

To make this report easier to read, I've split it into sections. Click the applicable link below to jump to the section you want to read:
Winner and Top Marks
Country Groups
Points to United Kingdom
Jury and Televoting Comparison
Alternative Voting Presentation
Conclusion

Winner and Top Marks

Points Levels to Winner

Jury Voting

The 9 countries which awarded 12 jury points to Austria (which won the jury vote and finished third overall) were: Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Iceland, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom. 25 other countries gave between 1 and 10 jury points to Austria. Interestingly Austria received no 6-point scores on the jury voting. 8 countries (other than Austria itself) gave no jury points at all to Austria, those being Albania, Azerbaijan, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Greece, Montenegro, Russia, San Marino.

The 5 countries which awarded 12 jury points to Israel (which finished third in the jury vote and was the overall winner) were: Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, San Marino. 29 other countries gave between 1 and 10 jury points to Israel. Interestingly Israel received at least two of each points level from 1 to 12 jury points inclusive. 8 countries (other than Israel itself) gave no jury points at all to Israel, those being Belarus, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Romania.

The number of times Austria and Israel received each particular points level (or no points at all) from the other juries is summarised in the following table:

Points Level	Jury to Austria	Austria Pts	Jury to Israel	Israel Pts
0	8	0	8	0
1	2	2	6	6
2	1	2	2	4
3	1	3	2	6
4	2	8	2	8
5	3	15	2	10
6	0	0	5	30
7	5	35	2	14
8	6	48	3	24
10	5	50	5	50
12	9	108	5	60
TOTAL	42	271	42	212

Televoting

Austria, which finished 13th in the televote and third overall, received no 12-point scores at all on televoting. Its highest individual televote score was 10 points from Denmark. 17 other countries gave between 1 and 8 televote points to Austria. 24 countries (other than Austria itself) gave no televote points at all to Austria, those being Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, FYR Macedonia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

The 8 countries which awarded 12 televote points to Israel (which won the televote and overall) were: Australia, Azerbaijan, France, Georgia, Moldova, San Marino, Spain, Ukraine. 31 other countries gave between 1 and 10 televote points to Israel. Notice that Israel received more 10-point scores than 12-point scores on televoting; hence its total from 10s (110) was higher than its total from 12s (96). Interestingly Israel received no 2-point or 4-point scores on televoting. Only 3 countries (other than Israel itself) gave no televote points at all to Israel, those being Denmark, Estonia, Slovenia.

The number of times Austria and Israel received each particular points level (or no points at all) in the televoting is summarised in the following table:

Points Level	Tele to Austria	Austria Pts	Tele to Israel	Israel Pts
0	24	0	3	0
1	2	2	4	4
2	3	6	0	0
3	5	15	1	3
4	2	8	0	0
5	2	10	1	5
6	2	12	3	18
7	0	0	7	49
8	1	8	4	32
10	1	10	11	110
12	0	0	8	96
TOTAL	42	71	42	317

Number of 12s Received

Jury Voting

14 of the 26 finalists received at least one 12-point vote from the juries. The number of 12-point votes received by each of those 14 countries from the juries is shown in the table below.

12 Points to	No of 12s Received	Total from 12s
Austria	9	108
Sweden	8	96
Cyprus	6	72
Israel	5	60
Germany	4	48
Estonia	3	36
Albania	1	12
Denmark	1	12
France	1	12
Italy	1	12
Lithuania	1	12
Moldova	1	12
Norway	1	12
Serbia	1	12

Notice that the highest number of 12-point scores (9 altogether) was received by Austria, which won the jury vote with 271 points, and finished 3rd overall with 342 points. Sweden, which finished second in the jury vote with 253 points and 7th overall with 274 points, received the second highest number of 12-point scores (8 altogether). The third highest number of 12-point scores (6 altogether) was received by Cyprus, which finished 5th in the jury vote with 183 points, but 2nd overall with 436 points. However, Israel, which finished 3rd in the jury vote with 212 points and was the overall winner with 529 points, received the fourth highest number of 12-point scores (5 altogether). Eight countries (Albania, Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Serbia) each received just one 12-point score from the juries. Of those, Denmark, Italy, Norway and Serbia finished on the right-hand side of the scoreboard (bottom 13) in the jury voting. Clearly one 12-point jury score wasn't enough to guarantee a top 10 or top 13 place in the jury voting.

Televoting

16 of the 26 finalists received at least one 12-point vote from the televoting. The number of 12-point votes received by each of those 16 countries in the televoting is shown in the table below.

12 Points to	No of 12s Received	Total from 12s
Israel	8	96
Lithuania	5	60
Serbia	4	48
Cyprus	3	36
Denmark	3	36
Italy	3	36
Ukraine	3	36
Albania	2	24
Czech Republic	2	24
Estonia	2	24
Germany	2	24
Moldova	2	24
Bulgaria	1	12
Hungary	1	12
Netherlands	1	12
Spain	1	12

Notice that the highest number of 12-point scores (8 altogether) was received by Israel, which won the televote with 317 points, and was the overall winner, with 529 points. The second highest number of 12-point scores (5 altogether) was received by Lithuania, which finished just 10th with 91 points in the televote and 12th with 181 points overall. This shows that a country which receives the second highest number of 12-point scores on televoting doesn't necessarily finish top three or even top five on televoting, or overall. The third highest number of 12-point scores (4 altogether) was received by Serbia, which finished 12th with 75 points in the televoting and 19th with 113 points overall. Cyprus, which finished second with 253 points in the televote and second with 436 points overall, received 12-point scores from just 3 other countries on televoting. The four countries which received just one 12-point score (Bulgaria, Hungary, Netherlands, Spain) all ended up in the bottom 13 of the televote. Clearly one 12-point televote score wasn't enough to guarantee a top 10 or top 13 place in the televoting.

All 12 Points

Jury Voting

The complete list of 12 jury point scores and jury points awarded to Austria (jury vote winner and third place overall), and Israel (jury vote third place and overall winner) is shown below:

#	From Country	12 Points to	Jury to Austria	Jury to Israel
15	Albania	Italy	0	5
30	Armenia	Sweden	1	8
26	Australia	Sweden	5	6
10	Austria	Israel	n/a	12
2	Azerbaijan	Albania	0	1
3	Belarus	Cyprus	10	0
22	Belgium	Austria	12	6
31	Bulgaria	Austria	12	4
16	Croatia	Lithuania	0	10
29	Cyprus	Sweden	2	0
19	Czech Republic	Israel	5	12
11	Denmark	Germany	8	3
27	Estonia	Austria	12	0
36	Finland	Israel	7	12
24	France	Israel	7	12
6	FYR Macedonia	Estonia	0	1
8	Georgia	Sweden	8	3
35	Germany	Sweden	10	1
32	Greece	Cyprus	0	4
33	Hungary	Denmark	8	6
20	Iceland	Austria	12	8
17	Ireland	Cyprus	5	7
39	Israel	Austria	12	n/a
25	Italy	Norway	7	2
14	Latvia	Sweden	7	0
41	Lithuania	Austria	12	6
7	Malta	Cyprus	1	6
21	Moldova	Estonia	3	10
34	Montenegro	Serbia	0	0
5	Netherlands	Germany	10	5
23	Norway	Germany	8	0
40	Poland	Austria	12	0
43	Portugal	Estonia	8	1
18	Romania	Austria	12	0
37	Russia	Moldova	0	8
4	San Marino	Israel	0	12
28	Serbia	Sweden	4	2
42	Slovenia	Sweden	10	1
9	Spain	Cyprus	8	10
13	Sweden	Cyprus	10	7
38	Switzerland	Germany	4	1
1	Ukraine	France	7	10
12	United Kingdom	Austria	12	10
			271	212

Televoting

The complete list of 12 televote point scores and televote points awarded to Austria (13th in televote and third place overall) and Israel (televote winner and outright winner) is shown below:

From Country	12 Points to	Tele to Austria	Tele to Israel
Albania	Italy	2	1
Armenia	Cyprus	6	10
Australia	Israel	0	12
Austria	Czech Republic	n/a	7
Azerbaijan	Israel	0	12
Belarus	Ukraine	0	8
Belgium	Netherlands	3	10
Bulgaria	Cyprus	4	10
Croatia	Serbia	0	6
Cyprus	Bulgaria	0	10
Czech Republic	Ukraine	0	10
Denmark	Germany	10	0
Estonia	Lithuania	6	0
Finland	Estonia	3	7
France	Israel	0	12
FYR Macedonia	Albania	0	3
Georgia	Israel	1	12
Germany	Italy	5	10
Greece	Cyprus	0	6
Hungary	Denmark	3	10
Iceland	Denmark	5	7
Ireland	Lithuania	0	6
Israel	Czech Republic	1	n/a
Italy	Albania	0	7
Latvia	Lithuania	0	8
Lithuania	Estonia	3	1
Malta	Italy	0	8
Moldova	Israel	0	12
Montenegro	Serbia	0	1
Netherlands	Germany	3	10
Norway	Lithuania	8	7
Poland	Ukraine	0	10
Portugal	Spain	0	1
Romania	Moldova	0	8
Russia	Moldova	0	10
San Marino	Israel	0	12
Serbia	Hungary	0	7
Slovenia	Serbia	2	0
Spain	Israel	0	12
Sweden	Denmark	2	10
Switzerland	Serbia	4	5
Ukraine	Israel	0	12
United Kingdom	Lithuania	0	7
		71	317

24 Points

Obviously, the maximum combined score a country can give to, or receive from another country is 24 points, that being 12 jury points and 12 televoting points. 9 of the 43 voting countries gave their 12 jury points and 12 televoting points to the same finalist, those being:

From Country	12+12 Points to
Albania	Italy
Denmark	Germany
France	Israel
Greece	Cyprus
Hungary	Denmark
Montenegro	Serbia
Netherlands	Germany
Russia	Moldova
San Marino	Israel

The number of 12 jury points + 12 televoting points received by each of those 9 countries is summarised in the table below. This time no country received more than two 24-point combined scores. Of the two countries which received two 24-point combined scores, one was Israel (overall winner with 529 points) and the other was Germany (which finished 4th with 340 points overall).

12+12 Points to	No of 24s Received	Total from 24s
Cyprus	1	24
Denmark	1	24
Germany	2	48
Israel	2	48
Italy	1	24
Moldova	1	24
Serbia	1	24
	9	216

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Country Groups

Now for a look at points awarded within certain groups of countries. N.B. In the following tables, boxes for a particular country to itself (e.g. from Denmark to Denmark) are marked "n/a" rather than 0, as no country can vote for itself.

Nordic Area

Four of the five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden) qualified for the Grand Final this year, but all five Nordic countries voted in the final as follows. Of course Iceland, which was eliminated in the semi-finals, could only give and not receive points this time.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Denmark	Jury to Finland	Jury to Norway	Jury to Sweden
Denmark	n/a	0	0	4
Finland	3	n/a	0	8
Iceland	0	0	0	5
Norway	0	0	n/a	10
Sweden	0	3	2	n/a
TOTAL	3	3	2	27

The way in which the five Nordic countries awarded (or didn't award) jury points to the four Nordic finalists is somewhat surprising this year (of course Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden could not vote for themselves). As can be seen, there are no 12s and a lot of zeroes in the above table! Sweden fared best with jury points from other Nordic countries. Even so, the highest jury score Sweden received was 10 points from Norway. Notice that Denmark, Finland and Norway all fared very badly with jury points from other Nordic countries.

Thus Denmark received 3 of its 38 jury points (7.89%), Finland received 3 of its 23 jury points (13.04%), Norway received just 2 of its 60 jury points (3.33%) and Sweden received 27 of its 253 jury points (10.67%) from this group. All this blew out of the window anyone's expectation of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden giving their 8, 10 and 12 jury points to each other, and the non-qualified Iceland giving their 7, 8, 10 and 12 jury points to the four Nordic finalists.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Denmark	Tele to Finland	Tele to Norway	Tele to Sweden
Denmark	n/a	0	8	7
Finland	10	n/a	0	0
Iceland	12	3	4	2
Norway	10	0	n/a	3
Sweden	12	6	8	n/a
TOTAL	44	9	20	12

As can be seen in this table, far more points were exchanged between the Nordic countries on televoting than on jury voting. Notice there are only a few zeroes in the above table. Denmark fared best on televoting within this group, by receiving two 10s and two 12s from other members of this group. Finland and Norway also did better on televoting than on jury voting within this group. On the other hand, Sweden received fewer televoting points than jury points within the Nordic group. Once again, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden could not vote for themselves. Thus Denmark received 44 of its 188 televoting points (23.40%), Finland received 9 of its 23 televoting points (39.13%), Norway received 20 of its 84 televoting points (23.81%) and Sweden received 12 of its 21 televoting points (57.14%) from this group. Again, this blew out of the window anyone's expectation of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden giving their 8, 10 and 12 televoting points to each other, and the non-qualified Iceland giving their 7, 8, 10 and 12 televoting points to the four Nordic finalists.

Baltic States (Ex USSR)

The three Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania exchanged points with each other as follows. Of course Latvia, which failed to qualify for the final, could only give and not receive points this time.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Estonia	Jury to Lithuania
Estonia	n/a	10
Latvia	8	4
Lithuania	0	n/a
TOTAL	8	14

As you can see, the jury points awarded to Estonia and Lithuania varied considerably. Notice that Estonia gave 10 jury points to Lithuania. However, in stark contrast, Lithuania gave no jury points at all to Estonia. Latvia, which failed to qualify for the final, gave 8 jury points to Estonia and 4 jury points to Lithuania. Thus Estonia received just 8 of its 143 jury points (5.59%) and Lithuania received 14 of its 90 jury points (15.56%) from this group. Clearly these three countries don't necessarily give top marks to the others in this group. Of course, Estonia and Lithuania could not vote for themselves.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Estonia	Tele to Lithuania
Estonia	n/a	12
Latvia	10	12
Lithuania	12	n/a
TOTAL	22	24

Estonia and Lithuania both fared considerably better within this group on televoting. Notice that Estonia and Lithuania gave each other 12 televoting points. Latvia, which failed to qualify for the final, gave 10 televoting points to Estonia and 12 televoting points to Lithuania. Once again, Estonia and Lithuania could not vote for themselves. Thus Lithuania received the most it possibly could from the other two countries in this group on televoting. Even so, Lithuania received just 24 of its 91 televoting points (26.37%) from the other two countries in this group Nearly three quarters of the televoting points awarded to Lithuania were from countries other than Estonia and Latvia. Estonia received 22 of its 102 televoting points (21.57%) from within this group.

Ex-Yugoslavia

Two ex-Yugoslav countries (Serbia and Slovenia) qualified for the Grand Final this year. Of course, the other three ex-Yugoslav countries (Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro) which took part in the semi-finals but failed to qualify still voted in the Grand Final, however they could only give and not receive jury and televoting points in the final.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Serbia	Jury to Slovenia
Croatia	0	0
FYR Macedonia	8	2
Montenegro	12	0
Serbia	n/a	0
Slovenia	0	n/a
TOTAL	20	2

As can be seen, Serbia fared best with jury points from other ex-Yugoslav countries. That said, Montenegro was the only ex-Yugoslav country which gave 12 jury points to Serbia. FYR Macedonia gave just 8 jury points to Serbia, whereas Croatia and Slovenia gave no jury points at all to Serbia. Slovenia did very badly with jury points from the other ex-Yugoslav countries; just 2 jury points from FYR Macedonia. Thus Serbia received 20 of its 38 jury points (52.63%) and Slovenia received just 2 of its 41 jury points (4.88%) from within this group. All this blew out of the window anyone's expectation of Serbia and Slovenia giving each other 12 jury points, and the other three ex-Yugoslav countries (Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro) giving their 10 and 12 jury points to Slovenia and Serbia.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Serbia	Tele to Slovenia
Croatia	12	7
FYR Macedonia	10	2
Montenegro	12	6
Serbia	n/a	8
Slovenia	12	n/a
TOTAL	46	23

As can be seen, Serbia and Slovenia both did considerably better on televoting within this group. Once again, Serbia fared best, with three 12s and one 10 from the other four ex-Yugoslav countries. Even so, Serbia received just 46 of its 75 televoting points (61.33%) from within this group (the rest still had to come from countries outside this group). Slovenia also received televoting points from each of the other four ex-Yugoslav countries, ranging from 2 to 8 points, and totalling 23. In other words, the 23 televoting points that Slovenia ended up with altogether were all from the other four ex-Yugoslav countries. Interestingly Serbia's total number of televoting points from other members of this group (46) is exactly double that of Slovenia's total (23). Anyway, the noticeable differences in the televoting points awarded to Serbia and Slovenia still blows out of the window anyone's expectation that, Serbia and Slovenia would give each other 12 televoting points, and the non-qualifying ex-Yugoslav countries which gave 12 to Serbia would give 10 to Slovenia, and vice versa, on televoting.

English Speaking Countries

Another group worth looking at here are the English-speaking countries Australia, Ireland, Malta and the United Kingdom. Within this group, the United Kingdom automatically qualified for the Grand Final as a Big Five member. Of the other three countries which took part in the semi-finals, Australia and Ireland qualified for the Grand Final, whereas Malta failed to qualify. Of course, Malta still voted in the Grand Final, but could only give and not receive jury and televoting points in the final.

Jury Voting

From Country	Jury to Australia	Jury to Ireland	Jury to UK
Australia	n/a	4	0
Ireland	0	n/a	0
Malta	3	0	0
United Kingdom	0	3	n/a
TOTAL	3	7	0

As can be seen here, very few jury points were awarded within this group this year. The highest single score from one country to another is 4 jury points from Australia to Ireland. Notice in particular that the United Kingdom received no jury points at all from Australia, Ireland or Malta. Australia received just 3 of its 90 jury points (3.33%) from the other members of this group. Ireland fared best here, in that it received 7 of its 74 jury points (9.46%) from the other members of this group.

Televoting

From Country	Tele to Australia	Tele to Ireland	Tele to UK
Australia	n/a	8	6
Ireland	0	n/a	10
Malta	6	0	1
United Kingdom	1	10	n/a
TOTAL	7	18	17

All three finalists in this group did better on televoting within this group. Even so, there were no 12s exchanged within this group. Notice that Ireland and the United Kingdom gave each other 10 televoting points (that was the highest score from one country to another within this group). Thus Australia received 7 of its 9 televoting points (77.78%), Ireland received 18 of its 62 televoting points (29.03%) and the United Kingdom received 17 of its 25 televoting points (68.00%) from within this group.

Other

Unsurprisingly Greece (which failed to qualify for the Grand Final) gave its 12 jury points and its 12 televoting points to Cyprus. To be fair, Cyprus was strongly tipped to win outright during the last few days before the Grand Final. Obviously, Cyprus could not give any points to Greece in return; as it happened Cyprus gave its 12 jury points to Sweden and its 12 televoting points to Bulgaria.

Belgium (which failed to qualify for the Grand Final) gave 10 points to The Netherlands and 12 points to Austria on jury voting. That blew out of the window anyone's expectation that Belgium would give its 12 jury points to The Netherlands. However, Belgium gave its 12 televoting points to The Netherlands, which was hardly surprising. Of course, The Netherlands could not give any points to Belgium. The Netherlands gave its 12 jury points and its 12 televoting points to Germany.

Spain gave no jury points and no televoting points to Portugal this year. That blew out of the window anyone's expectation that Spain would give 12 jury points and 12 televoting points to Portugal. Spain gave its 12 jury points to Cyprus and 12 televoting points to Israel.

Portugal gave just 2 jury points to Spain, and 12 jury points to Estonia. That blew out of the window anyone's expectation that Portugal would give its 12 jury points to Spain. However, Portugal gave its 12 televoting points to Spain.

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Points to United Kingdom

6 countries gave jury points to the UK, as follows:

From Country	Points to UK
Israel	8
Italy	6
France	3
Croatia	2
Latvia	2
Montenegro	2
TOTAL	23

7 countries gave televoting points to the UK as follows:

From Country	Points to UK
Ireland	10
Australia	6
Albania	3
Denmark	3
Germany	1
Malta	1
San Marino	1
TOTAL	25

Interestingly the 6 countries in the first of the above two tables gave the UK no televoting points and the 7 countries in the second of the above two tables gave the UK no jury points. Thus no country gave the UK both jury points and televoting points this year.

The number of times the UK received each particular points level in the jury voting and televoting is summarised in the following table:

Points Level	Jury to UK	UK Jury Points	Tele to UK	UK Tele Points
0	36	0	35	0
1	0	0	3	3
2	3	6	0	0
3	1	3	2	6
4	0	0	0	0
5	0	0	0	0
6	1	6	1	6
7	0	0	0	0
8	1	8	0	0
10	0	0	1	10
12	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	42	23	42	25

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Jury and Televoting Comparison

A sortable table, with all the jury, televoting and final points and placings, is shown below.

#	Finalist	Jury Points	Jury Place	Televote Points	Televote Place	Final Points	Final Place	Tele-Jury Pts Diff	Tele-Jury Place Diff
1	Ukraine	11	26	119	7	130	17	108	19
2	Spain	43	18	18	24	61	23	-25	-6
3	Slovenia	41	19	23	22	64	22	-18	-3
4	Lithuania	90	11	91	10	181	12	1	1
5	Austria	271	1	71	13	342	3	-200	-12
6	Estonia	143	6	102	9	245	8	-41	-3
7	Norway	60	16	84	11	144	15	24	5
8	Portugal	21	25	18	25	39	26	-3	0
9	United Kingdom	23	23	25	20	48	24	2	3
10	Serbia	38	21	75	12	113	19	37	9
11	Germany	204	4	136	6	340	4	-68	-2
12	Albania	126	7	58	18	184	11	-68	-11
13	France	114	8	59	17	173	13	-55	-9
14	Czech Republic	66	15	215	4	281	6	149	11
15	Denmark	38	20	188	5	226	9	150	15
16	Australia	90	12	9	26	99	20	-81	-14
17	Finland	23	24	23	21	46	25	0	3
18	Bulgaria	100	9	66	14	166	14	-34	-5
19	Moldova	94	10	115	8	209	10	21	2
20	Sweden	253	2	21	23	274	7	-232	-21
21	Hungary	28	22	65	15	93	21	37	7
22	Israel	212	3	317	1	529	1	105	2
23	Netherlands	89	13	32	19	121	18	-57	-6
24	Ireland	74	14	62	16	136	16	-12	-2
25	Cyprus	183	5	253	2	436	2	70	3
26	Italy	59	17	249	3	308	5	190	14

N.B. Tele-Jury Pts Diff: the difference between the total number of televoting points and total number of jury points a country received. Calculated as follows: televoting points total - jury points total. Thus if a country received fewer televoting points than jury points (e.g. Sweden) this is negative; if a country received more televoting points than jury points (e.g. Italy) this is positive.

Tele-Jury Place Diff: the difference between the televoting place and jury place of a country. Calculated as follows: jury place - televoting place. Sweden was 2nd in the jury voting and 23rd in the televoting (21 places lower than jury voting, shown as -21). Italy was 17th in the jury voting and 3rd in the televoting, (14 places higher than jury voting, shown as 14). Due to movement of other countries on the scoreboard, the actual from and to placings, and number of places which a particular country e.g. Sweden moved on the scoreboard at the moment its televoting total was announced may have been different.

Of the countries that received more televote points than jury points, the country with the biggest points difference is Italy. Its televoting total of 249 points was 190 points higher than the 59 points it received from the juries. Although Italy received just two more 12-point scores on televoting than on jury voting, it received considerably more 10 and 8 point scores on televoting than jury voting, and plenty of 7, 6 and 5 point scores on televoting (after getting no points at those levels on jury voting). All of which led to its televoting total being 190 points higher than its jury total. In addition, its televoting place of 3rd was 14 places higher than its jury place of 17th (surprisingly though, that wasn't the biggest place difference of the countries which placed higher on televoting than jury voting). Once all the televoting scores were added, Italy finished 5th overall with 308 points.

Points level	Jury to Italy	Italy Pts	Tele to Italy	Italy Pts
0	31	0	7	0
1	2	2	0	0
2	0	0	1	2
3	1	3	1	3
4	4	16	1	4
5	0	0	5	25
6	0	0	9	54
7	0	0	5	35
8	2	16	5	40
10	1	10	5	50
12	1	12	3	36
TOTAL	42	59	42	249

Now for a country which received fewer televoting points than jury points. The country with the biggest difference overall between jury and televoting points and placing is Sweden. Firstly, it had the biggest points difference among the countries that received fewer points on televoting than jury voting. It received just 21 points in the televoting, which was 232 points lower than the 253 points it received from the juries. Whereas 35 countries gave jury points to Sweden, only 7 countries gave any televote points at all to Sweden. Notice in particular, that Sweden received 12 points from 8 countries on jury voting, but its highest individual televoting score was one set of 7 points (which came from Denmark). In addition, Sweden's televoting place of 23rd was a whopping 21 places lower than its jury place of 2nd; the largest place difference of countries that placed lower on televoting than jury voting. No country had a points difference or place difference of this magnitude higher on televoting than jury voting.

Points level	Jury to Sweden	Sweden Pts	Tele to Sweden	Sweden Pts
0	7	0	35	0
1	3	3	1	1
2	3	6	3	6
3	0	0	1	3
4	2	8	1	4
5	4	20	0	0
6	2	12	0	0
7	2	14	1	7
8	8	64	0	0
10	3	30	0	0
12	8	96	0	0
TOTAL	42	253	42	21

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Alternative Voting Presentation

During the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final, the jury voting points from each of the participating 43 countries (including the 17 non-qualifiers) were presented in the traditional way, i.e. for each country the 1 to 10 point scores were displayed on screen when the spokesperson appeared, added to the scoreboard as a block and the spokesperson announced the 12-point score. The voting order was: Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus, San Marino, Netherlands, FYR Macedonia, Malta, Georgia, Spain, Austria, Denmark, United Kingdom, Sweden, Latvia, Albania, Croatia, Ireland, Romania, Czech Republic, Iceland, Moldova, Belgium, Norway, France, Italy, Australia, Estonia, Serbia, Cyprus, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, Germany, Finland, Russia, Switzerland, Israel, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia, Portugal.

This whole process took about 36 minutes. After a short break the televoting totals for each of the 26 finalists were announced. Daniela Ruah and Catarina Furtado announced the bottom 16 countries of the televote, from 26th to 11th, in rapid succession. The top ten countries of the televote, from 10th to 1st, were announced at a considerably slower pace, with a Green Room shot of the applicable artist as each country was announced. This process, from start to finish, took about 7 minutes.

What would have happened if the televoting points from each calling country had been announced by the 43 spokespersons first? Let's assume the order of presentation was the same as was used for announcement of the jury points, as specified above.

A few things are obvious:
Israel would have finished 1st with 317 points and Cyprus would have finished 2nd with 253 points (a margin of 64 points).
The United Kingdom would have received points 7 times (1 from San Marino, 1 from Malta, 3 from Denmark, 3 from Albania, 10 from Ireland, 6 from Australia, 1 from Germany) and ended up 20th with 25 points.
Australia would have finished last with just 9 points.

The following are speculated. Although all the jury points and televoting points each of the 43 countries awarded to the finalists are available on eurovision.tv, the only way to confirm the following would be able to create a graphic simulation of the scoreboard, starting with the finalists on zero in the order they performed, and each of the 43 countries' televoting points (1 to 12) being added in the order mentioned above.
For some of the voting a "cat and mouse" situation might have occurred between Israel and Cyprus.
From some point, Israel would almost certainly have held its lead to the end.
A few countries towards the end, Israel would almost certainly have become uncatchable on televoting points alone.

Once all 43 spokespersons had finished announcing their televoting points, the scoreboard would have looked like this.

Israel	317	Bulgaria	66
Cyprus	253	Hungary	65
Italy	249	Ireland	62
Czech Republic	215	France	59
Denmark	188	Albania	58
Germany	136	The Netherlands	32
Ukraine	119	United Kingdom	25
Moldova	115	Finland	23
Estonia	102	Slovenia	23
Lithuania	91	Sweden	21
Norway	84	Spain	18
Serbia	75	Portugal	18
Austria	71	Australia	9

Afterwards Daniela and Catarina would have announced the jury totals for each of the 26 finalists, starting with the bottom 16 from 26th to 11th, in rapid succession, as follows: N.B. I have simulated the procedure by inserting the jury totals alongside the televoting totals into a spreadsheet and sorting it as each jury total was added. This is how I've been able to describe country movements on the scoreboard. To see all the simultaneous movements by multiple counties as each jury total would have been read out, one would need an animated graphic simulation of the scoreboard. Comments that Graham Norton might have said are shown in square brackets.

The country with the lowest score, with 11 points is Ukraine (keeping them at 7th for now). [That is such a shock]
With 21 points we have Portugal (taking them to 19th momentarily).
With 23 points Finland (taking them to 19th momentarily).
Also with 23 points we have United Kingdom (taking them to 19th momentarily). [We've done worse with the juries than with the public this year, but at least we won't be finishing last]
With 28 points Hungary (taking them to 10th momentarily).
With 38 points Serbia (taking them to 9th momentarily).
Also with 38 points Denmark (taking them to 4th momentarily). [Well that changes everything ladies and gentlemen, we will not be going to Denmark next year]
With 41 points we have Slovenia (taking them to 16th momentarily).
With 43 points Spain (taking them to 18th momentarily).
With 59 points Italy (taking them to 2nd momentarily). [So we won't be going to Italy either]
With 60 points Norway (taking them to 6th momentarily).
With 66 points Czech Republic (taking them to 3rd momentarily). [We won't be going to Czech Republic, but at least they look set for their best result ever]
With 74 points Ireland (taking them to 8th momentarily). [I mean that's a very respectable number for them, we thought they might do better]
With 89 points The Netherlands (taking them to 10th momentarily).
With 90 points Australia (taking them to 14th momentarily).
And also with 90 points Lithuania (taking them to 6th momentarily).

The scoreboard would have looked like this after the bottom 16 jury totals were announced (countries which had received their jury totals are in bold):

Israel	317	Estonia	102
Italy	308	Australia	99
Czech Republic	281	Hungary	93
Cyprus	253	Austria	71
Denmark	226	Bulgaria	66
Lithuania	181	Slovenia	64
Norway	144	Spain	61
Germany	136	France	59
Ireland	136	Albania	58
Ukraine	130	United Kingdom	48
The Netherlands	121	Finland	46
Moldova	115	Portugal	39
Serbia	113	Sweden	21

The countries placed 10th to 4th would have been announced at a much slower pace. Daniela and Catarina would have announced the recipients of the top ten jury totals alternately. Each time the applicable country's score would have been updated and repositioned on the scoreboard, and viewers would have seen a brief shot of the applicable artist in the Green Room.

The 10th highest score, with 94 points is Moldova. This would have taken them to 6th momentarily.

The 9th highest score, with 100 points is Bulgaria. This would have taken them to 8th momentarily.

The 8th highest score, with 114 points is France. This would have taken them to 8th momentarily.

The 7th highest score, with 126 points is Albania. This would have taken them to 7th momentarily.

The 6th highest score, with 143 points is Estonia. This would have taken them to 5th momentarily.

The 5th highest score, with 183 points is Cyprus. This would have taken them into the lead for now. Graham Norton would probably have said "Cyprus are now in the lead with 436 points, but is that enough to win?" Actually it wouldn't have been enough for Cyprus to win, because the minimum Israel could have now received from the juries would have been 183 points, taking its score to 500 points.

The 4th highest score, with 204 points is Germany. This would have taken them to 2nd momentarily.

At this point the scoreboard would have looked like this (countries which had received their jury totals are in bold):

Cyprus	436	Ireland	136
Germany	340	Ukraine	130
Israel	317	The Netherlands	121
Italy	308	Serbia	113
Czech Republic	281	Australia	99
Estonia	245	Hungary	93
Denmark	226	Austria	71
Moldova	209	Slovenia	64
Albania	184	Spain	61
Lithuania	181	United Kingdom	48
France	173	Finland	46
Bulgaria	166	Portugal	39
Norway	144	Sweden	21

With just three countries (Israel, Austria, Sweden) still awaiting their jury points, Cyprus would have been currently in the lead with its final score of 436 points. Green Room shots of the artists representing those countries would have been shown in four on-screen windows before continuing. The lowest possible jury total Israel could now have got, if it was called next (third in the jury vote) would have been 204 jury points (just like Germany), which would have put its final score at 521 points. Consequently, it would have already been mathematically impossible for Cyprus to win. By now Graham Norton may well have admitted he'd done the maths, and already figured out that Israel would have been guaranteed to leapfrog Cyprus. Daniela and Catarina would have continued as follows.

The country that got the 3rd highest score, with 212 points is Israel. This would have put Israel back in the lead, with its final score of 529 points. Graham Norton would probably have said "I think Israel have won".

It's questionable what would have happened next with just Austria and Sweden still awaiting their jury points. For the record, each country's jury awarded a total of 58 points to ten finalists, so with 43 countries voting, that meant 2,494 jury points were awarded altogether. Of those, 1,970 points would have already been awarded to the countries placed 26th to 3rd in the jury vote, thereby leaving 524 jury points for the top two finalists. The least the second highest placed country (Austria or Sweden) could have received from the juries would now have been 212 points (just like Israel), which would have left 312 jury points for the winner of the jury vote. Consequently, the maximum Sweden could now have finished with would have been 333 points (21 televoting + 312 jury) and the maximum Austria could have finished with would have been 383 points (71 televoting + 312 jury).

Assuming RTP and the EBU wanted to keep the suspense going (even though it would now have been mathematically impossible for Austria or Sweden to win) Daniela or Catarina would have said "Only two countries left to receive their points from the juries. So now Israel is leading the vote, but can Austria or Sweden get enough points from the juries to overtake Israel and win?". Green Room shots of the artists representing Israel, Austria and Sweden would have been shown in three on-screen windows before continuing. Graham Norton would have probably said "I don't think Austria or Sweden can possibly get enough to pass Israel".

The country that got the 2nd highest score, with 253 points is Sweden. This would have taken them to 6th place, with 274 points. Graham Norton would, almost certainly, have said "Well that's irrelevant. It's extraordinary the difference between the televoters and the juries".

With Israel still in the lead, Austria would have been the only country still to receive its jury points. Daniela or Catarina would have said "The favourite, according to the juries, is Austria, but will they get enough points to pass Israel?" Green Room shots of the artists representing Israel and Austria would have been shown, side by side, in two on-screen windows before continuing. Graham Norton would, almost certainly, have said "I don't think Austria can do it, they would need 459 or more to pass Israel; I doubt if there are that many jury points left". Daniela or Catarina would have said "Austria gets 271 points from the juries, which is not enough to overtake Israel. We have a winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, Israel." Austria would have finished 3rd with 342 points.

Alternatively, once Israel's jury total had been put on the scoreboard, Daniela or Catarina might have openly admitted that it had become mathematically impossible for either Austria or Sweden to overtake Israel, and thus Israel was officially the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 whatever happened next. The emphasis would thus have turned to seeing how much Austria and Sweden actually received from the juries, and where they ended up. For the top two announcements the procedure would thus have been the same as for 10th to 4th; just showing the green room shot of the relevant artist after announcing the score.
The country that got the 2nd highest score, with 253 points is Sweden.
And the winner of the jury vote, with 342 points, is Austria, which takes them to 3rd place overall.

No matter how the top two countries of the jury vote were announced, the final scoreboard would have looked like this:

Israel	529	Bulgaria	166
Cyprus	436	Norway	144
Austria	342	Ireland	136
Germany	340	Ukraine	130
Italy	308	The Netherlands	121
Czech Republic	281	Serbia	113
Sweden	274	Australia	99
Estonia	245	Hungary	93
Denmark	226	Slovenia	64
Moldova	209	Spain	61
Albania	184	United Kingdom	48
Lithuania	181	Finland	46
France	173	Portugal	39

Overall, the time taken to announce the 43 sets of televoting points followed by the 26 finalists' jury totals would have been about the same; in this case about 36 minutes for the 43 sets of televoting points and 7 minutes for the 26 jury voting totals. However, it's important to remember, that viewers voted by phone, text or app during the live grand final Saturday 12 May 2018, whereas juries voted during the dress rehearsal the previous evening. Almost immediately after the public voting lines closed, Jon Ola Sand stated that the EBU had a valid result from the 43 professional juries and, without further ado, the presentation of the jury results in the traditional manner began. However, the EBU must have needed more time to validate and verify the televoting results, especially votes cast in the last few minutes of the lines being open, which must have been done during the 36 minutes' presentation of the jury votes. Once all 43 spokespersons had announced the jury results, Jon Ola Sand stated that the televoting had gone according to plan, and the EBU had a 100% correct result, so the presentation of the televoting totals followed. Announcing the televoting scores in the traditional manner (by 43 spokespersons) first would have delayed the start of the scoring procedure considerably (perhaps as much as 20 to 30 minutes), thereby necessitating further interval acts. Alternatively, RTP and the EBU may have decided a better option would be to suspend the broadcast for the required time of 20 to 30 minutes, to allow national broadcasters to air their own filler programme (e.g. news bulletin) before returning to the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 Grand Final for the start of the televoting results.

At this point individual countries would have been able to announce their own national jury points. Graham Norton would almost certainly have read out the UK's national jury results to UK viewers.

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Conclusion

This was only the third time the two-part voting system first introduced in 2016 was used. Once again, it certainly produced some shocks and surprises, and plenty for keen fans to analyse well after the winner was announced. One of the biggest shocks was seeing Sweden (which finished second with 253 points in the jury vote) receive just 21 points more when the public vote results were announced. Consequently, Sweden ended up 7th place, with 274 points overall. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the night was Cesár Sampson from Austria, who won the jury vote with 271 points, but finished 13th with 71 points in the televote, and consequently 3rd with 342 points overall. Conversely, Czech Republic, Denmark and Italy did considerably better in terms of points and placing on televoting than on jury voting and ended up top ten overall. One thing is certain, if the EBU keeps the same voting system next year and beyond, extreme disparities between jury and public voting will occur again. It's only a matter of time before a country wins one system (jury or televoting) with a record-breaking score for one set of points alone (388 or more) and finishes last with zero points in the other system.

2016 saw Australia win the jury voting (but finish just fourth in the televoting), Russia win the televoting (but finish fifth place in the jury voting), and Ukraine win outright after finishing second in both jury and televoting. That clearly demonstrated that winning one part of the voting (jury voting or televoting) and finishing fourth or fifth in the other may not be enough to win outright, especially if another country finishes second in both parts. Last year saw Portugal win both the jury voting and televoting, and thus win outright. This year saw Austria win the jury voting (but finish just 13th in the televoting) and Israel win the televoting (but finish third in the jury voting) and win outright. Three totally different scenarios in three consecutive years! Time will tell what happens if country A wins jury voting and finishes second or third in televoting, whereas country B wins televoting and finishes second or third in jury voting.

Once again, as a UK citizen, I was naturally disappointed that the UK finished 23rd with 23 points in the jury vote, 20th with 25 points in the televote, and 24th with 48 points overall. At least the UK's televoting total was higher than its televoting totals of 2016 and 2017 combined, but due to its jury total being lower than 2016 (let alone 2017), it scored its lowest combined total since 2016, and equalled its overall placing of 2016. Looking positively, the UK did slightly better on televoting than jury voting this year; it finished 2 points higher on televoting than jury voting, and 3 places higher on televoting than jury voting. Furthermore, the UK received points from 6 countries on jury voting and 7 countries on televoting. One could say there was consistency between the juries and public with countries voting for the UK, until you consider that the countries which gave the 7 countries which gave the UK televoting points were a completely different group of countries to the 6 that gave the UK jury points; thus the UK received either jury or televoting points from 13 other countries, but no country gave the UK both jury points and televoting points this year.

With all this in mind, after three years of this two-part voting system being used, I still like this system very much, and feel it's perfectly fair. I hope the EBU continues using this system in 2019 and beyond. The announcement of the televoting totals adds to the excitement of the scoring procedure; in fact, I think it's the highlight of the entire Grand Final. Mark my words, next year's Eurovision Song Contest will tell another story as far as the jury and public results are concerned.

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