Should the commentators be neutral ?

[H.P. Lovecraft]

The comments from our presenters, Saverio Raimondo (a funny short man) and Ema Stokholma (if I'm not mistaken, he also has French origins) were very balanced. They hope for our victory but they have enjoyed a lot of songs. They were even saddened by the controversy that arose between Spain and Norway. It seems that Norwegian TV joked about choosing Blas' grandmother. They said he must win the music and not the controversy (they also prophesied that Spain and Norway may not vote tonight). I believe that neutrality and respect can exist in a commentator but, obviously in his heart, he hopes for his representative to win.

 

[Franzilein]

And I thought the Age of Enlightenment was already over... Commentators have every right to voice their opinion.

 

[soulm8]

And I thought the Age of Enlightenment was already over... Commentators have every right to voice their opinion.

Not really! Let’s say you liked Georgia, but your lovely commentator is saying: “ This is the last place in the Semi, the bookies are calling this the Brexit of the SF”. Many wouldn’t even bother to vote then, this is unfair.

 

[A-lister]

Would be fun to let all your commentators say what one of our hosts said after Moldova's false note.

But in all honesty I think neutrality makes boring. There should be something in it. Also I believe neutrality is always impossible, though I think especially when top 10 to 15 contenders come up neutrality would be good.

I think you can be witty and fun, without disrespecting the contest and try to influence the outcome.

But yes, I also don't want them to be censored and not be able to comment on something when it's obviously funny, but to tell viewers "This song is boring" or "This song has no chance according to the odds", then they're trying to influence the voters.

Also all commentators that basically say "This contest is a joke" need to go!

 

[innou]

The Greek commentators (since 2013 we have the same ones, with a break in 2018) used to be very respectful to the artists and the format, while keeping a humorous tone when needed. However, as years pass, and especially after their comeback, they have ''changed'' their attitude and sometimes can be a pain to have to listen to (especially the male one, Giorgos Kapoutzidis, who is actually a huge fan himself so it makes me wonder what this shift is for). They realllllly broke my nerves in Semi 1, they had this long recurring conversation about one of them loving Mata Hari while the other hated it.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

I don't really look at the commentator as the person meant to be entertaining me. (and if I did then I'd probably be questioning why I was watching Eurovision in the first place) Having them be personable and likeable is important, but that's as far as it goes for me.

 

[EscGeek]

All commentators should be neutral. Not just for eurovision, but in general. When i watch a sports game, i roll my eyes everytime our commentator is choosing to ignore mistakes of our players or when they're pointing out only petty mistakes from the referee that benefited the other team, but not the ones that benefited us.

But at eurovision, neutrality is even more important because the songs are competing for the votes from the public.

 

[Franzilein]

Not really! Let’s say you liked Georgia, but your lovely commentator is saying: “ This is the last place in the Semi, the bookies are calling this the Brexit of the SF”. Many wouldn’t even bother to vote then, this is unfair.

Or they are mature enough to decide for themselves which song they like and will vote for. Oh Holy Messiah Commentator, tell me which song is worthy and which isn't, for I have no opinion of my own... Seriously?

 

[Alevender]

They should be neutral. I personally do not mind the current commentator of LTV1 this year, I, however, did not enjoy him much in 2019 when there was too much focus on personal taste that resulted into "cmon vote for this" so I switched to the YouTube stream later. This year I did not really notice that, the only thing I did not like was paying too much attention to odds, like, this will have no problem qualifying, this will top 3 in the final etc., feels unnecessary as it can somewhat influence the flow of voting. But in general I am quite satisfied, I am sure there are worse

 

[Ana Raquel]

Impartiality does not exist.

That being said, they should at least be respectful towards artists and their acts.

 

[NeoTen]

Most aren't vocalists or producers. They can't help it. It's just like in other entertainment industries, only the British consistently only employ former artists or athletes as live commentators. Most people following are families or groups of friends, they aren't watching for the vocal techniques, dances and total package like an artist would. So it won't work well. In fact, 55-65% of the audience do not watch other music shows in western Europe. You can't ''educate'' them. So let the commentators be biased I guess, it works this way. We have VPNs now.

I've used the youtube stream for ages now, I don't miss them.

 

[crashworld]

Just out of curiousity, do the commentors ever talk about political situation of the countries? Because I would hate that to happen to any participant (especially Eden this year). That could be detrimental. I hope EBU has a rule to say that the commentors are not to comment anything political.

 

[NeoTen]

Just out of curiousity, do the commentors ever talk about political situation of the countries?

A few do, it's mainly because, in practice, the contest doesn't like to exclude people for a plethora of economic and political reasons. The commentators often are dependent for their careers on their job because of those reasons so it evens each other out mostly. I think I've seen Gísli Martein Baldursson even calling out Israel getting condemned by parliament this year. Russia got condemned by half of the commentators during the "Ukraine... stuff". But everyone moves on. Apart from Russia obviously who probably lost once with Lazarev because of that.

 

[BorisBubbles]

I would like them to be positive about every song. Just point out the strengths, what the song is about, and other special things it has going for it. Every entrant in Eurovision provides something of value. Bring it out more.

 

[Daybreak]

I think I'm getting a bit tired of our commentator, Marko Reikop. He's a great entertainment TV host and his Eurovision coverage has been pretty good, but he has been doing it since 1998 and in recent years he doesn't seem to have much to say except some general tidbits about the artists or quoting the bookies' predictions (as in "of course, this song will do badly") which is obviously affecting voters and is simply boring.

 

[Lance Esgard]

I believe viewers should have the choice to access the YouTube stream without geoblocking potentially asking them to tune into a stream with particularly opinionated or negative commentators.

 

[LoveHate]

I’m a bit torn here. On one hand the commentators should not influence voting, but on the other hand some comments are really entertaining. (Fenno-Swedish commentator Eva Frantz said Natalia was going for the longest note record, but would have had to actually hit the note for it to count). I guess I’m fine with some snarky comments, but leave out stuff like ”this has no chance”, ”this is dead last in the odds”, or ”this is awful”.

 

[aef]

I'd say rather yes but where should you draw the line? Our commentator was mentioning the betting odds a lot and calling certain songs the big favourites. That's already some kind of influence, the viewers at home will watch those performances with more attention of course...

In general the influence of the betting odds is the biggest critical point for me when it comes to voting - even more for the juries!

 

[hpp0]

As someone said the Greek commentators used to be good but got progressively worse. They started being kinda rude to some entries since 2015 and they were getting worse every year, with 2017 being for me their absolutely. Then in 2019, I disagree a bit with the other person I think they were in general more respectful but I believe they really try to cater to these casuals that thing esc is full of trash songs with some comments they make.

But what they started doing since 2019 and really annoyed me is how they started bringing up the odds a lot. Like this year they said that Estonia, Czechia, Georgia are practically out, saying that Albania is borderline, mentioning for Malta and Lithuania that they were favourites and how they have now fallen and other stuff like that. Not to mention how they were constantly saying that Moldova's entry is "basically half Greek". A bit more objectivity in general wouldn't hurt.

 

[toinou03]

In the 2000s, while we were sending crap, we had supposedly funny commentators, saying quite offensive thing, especially by 2004-2007. Actually they realized that figures were better when the comment was better, because the outrageous stuff get people off their tits, and because it's quite weird to broadcast something while explaining how it's shit for hours...