What went wrong in the final, ORF?

[ElRuso]

Alice`s face pretty much says it all

 

[tuorem]

Poor woman whoever she was

I wouldn't say poor, her tits are famous now they were seen by 200 million people!

By the way, did anyone notice 2 seconds of the Azeri performance were accidentally shown just before the interval act of the final?

As I said before, there were too many hosts: Conchita and Arabella would have been enough tbh. To me, the other two were more useless, cold and awkward than anything. This is the worst hosting since the semis in Russia in 2009. However, I think got an overdose of Conchita, she was too present for me.

The issues during the voting were unpardonable: it's a thing to face an unforeseen technical difficulty, but it's another thing when it recurs like it did. Were there like 4-5 countries with a sudden lack of connection? Portugal, Georgia, Estonia, I don't remember the rest. I'm not surprised, since 2013, it seems like the producers neglect the voting time, but as we saw, they should really make sure everything runs smoothly. And those presenters, already looking awkward, who looked even more panic-stricken when they realized the country they announced didn't appear on screen... Even people in the arena expressed their embarrassement each time it happened.

 

[carriethunderwood]

Bless ORF, they tried, but really it was a disaster from start to finish.

For starters the show lasted 4 hours, which is insane. We didn't hear the first song until 24 minutes into the show (for comparison's sake, Finland took 8 minutes to get to the first song in 2007), and the voting didn't start until 3 hours into the show. In Baku the presenters we getting ready to declare the winner 3 hours in. I imagine ORF realised they are only going to host ESC once so tried to make the best show they could, but inadvertently made the most unwieldy and exasperating spectacle Eurovision has ever seen. I hope to god the EBU reign the show in next year and bring it back to basics. Scrap the parade of nations, have a 5 minute opening, reduce the number of countries in the final significantly, and try to get the show down to a manageable length (3h15m ideally).

Granted, the stage was nice, and although the presenters were a little stale, they did at least speak impeccable English, which is more than can be said for the run of presenters we had throughout the 00s. But honestly, I hope that this year will serve as a reminder to the EBU and SVT about how not to run Eurovision.

 

[Helloworld]

Can someone tell me exactly where the breast zoom is? I want to relive it.

 

[MyHeartIsYours]

I think 4 hours is the right length of time for the final. 2 hours for the semis, 4 for the final. I didn't like the hosts but overall I think Austria's hosting was great.

 

[GermanBango]

I can see where all your criticism comes from but I really enjoyed the shows tbh.

 

[Quent91]

Yes, 4 hours is a great runtime for the final of such a big annual and international event. The more it lasts, the better.

 

[Haverdge]

Can someone tell me exactly where the breast zoom is? I want to relive it.

It's right after the Georgian performance in the final. So not only did they fuck up her entire performance visually, but they did that to put the icing on the cake.

 

[r3gg13]

Failing to build a proper connection with the spokespersons from Portugal and 2 or so other countries was rather disappointing. It's one of those things that you expect to not happen.

 

[tuorem]

It's right after the Georgian performance in the final. So not only did they fuck up her entire performance visually, but they did that to put the icing on the cake.

Yeah, there shouldn't have been that much smoke on stage at the beginning :? One could hardly see her even with closeups.

 

[GWTW1939]

The funny thing is they had a template in all the past Eurovision contests that they copied (there really wasn't anything new or original) and yet they still messed it up

Maybe in all that copying of the past they decided to throw in copying the disaster of 1991 as well

The show was so long yet they didn't really achieve anything memorable that was considered good

 

[Chorizo]

Obviously, the shows were far from perfect but every single year people complain a lot about everything on this forum. I think that might be a little too critical. As soon as the first songs are known, every year is feared to be a "weak Eurovision", then the stage is too small and too bad and of course the hosts are awful every year and so forth. Every year, there are also some unique problems, like the abundance of trees on the LED screen in this year.

There are things that were great this year like the stage, the postcards, the graphics and the scoreboard. ORF clearly put much effort into these things. The video bridges were also great and I liked the inclusion of different languages.

I think the hosts did their job but they weren't extraordinary in any way. Whoever thinks the hosts were a disaster, should watch the contest of 2009 and start with Semi 1. That's what I call a disaster.

ORF introduced new things this year that weren't seen on Eurovision before and they improved others, like the scoreboard. I think the kinetic sculpture wasn't used to its fullest potential, though. I would have also preferred a larger venue but poor Austria doesn't have one. Nevertheless, they made the best possible use of the venue they had.

The opening and interval acts in the final were also fine and ORF put a big show together. Of course, not everyone likes ORF's classic approach to the contest. In the last two years, there was a bigger focus on fun and jokes but ORF wanted to host a more serious and classic show this year. Next year in Sweden, it will be different again and I think it’s okay that the show isn’t the same every year and that different broadcasters take the show in a different direction. Naturally, many people also complained about Sweden in 2013, didn’t they?

There are of course things I really didn't like. The opening of Semi 2 could have been better and there were no decent interval acts in the semis. The videos with the contrived connections between Austria and Eurovision were quite bad. In addition, the results were given too fast in Semi 1 in an anticlimactic way.

Announcing that the show would end at 0:35 while it actually ended at 1:00 was also rather unprofessional and I have no idea how they had intended to finish within the originally announced time. I don't mind at all that it took four hours but they should have announced right away that the show would take that long. I have to say I kind of like that ORF just didn't give a fuck and didn't make an effort to finish in time. That was a very different approach than in the last two years, when the broadcasters were struggling too and made an effort to finish in time. SVT was really rushing everything in the end but ORF just kept going.

I really hated the fake audience sounds but they will most likely be back next year due to Russia being booed. There were clearly too many technical glitches and the camera work could have been much better. It’s common to have technical issues in Eurovision but losing three countries during the voting seems somewhat excessive.
Last but not least, I have really seen enough of Conchita now.

Calling the whole show a total disaster or the worst show as yet because of these problems seems undeserved, though. It’s just the usual dramatization that’s always going on here.

 

[FilipFromSweden]

There we're ofcourse things that we're good. The opening act with Conchita, the hosts and the kids was great. I liked the scoreboard, the stage was quite nice and Arabella seemed to be a good host, at least in the final. It was absolutely not the worst Eurovision, it was just a little rough around the edges.

 

[Nikkita]

Where should i begin? Fxcked up unprofessional camera angles ruining every performance, disconnection to 3 countries while voting, most boring hosts ever, a boring interval act (the drum one)... And it's all happening in Austria. I didn't expected such a disaster from them, but obviously sxit will happen when your country can't spend money on such an important event. I'm less interested in 2016 now, can't wait what will Sweden do to make Eurovision worse and try to make people love their Melodifestivalen.

 

[SRBIJA]

I don't think the show was bad at all. I'm pressuming it's just that some people really had uberhigh expectations. Semifinal interval acts were the only part of the show that came slightly boring to me, but I usually don't pay attention to this stuff anyway. Final Opening, on the other hand, was great. About the hosts, Arabella seemed slightly awkward from time to time, but the remaining two hosts were really likeable and did their job really well ( in fact, I think they are my favourite hosts since Germany 2011). Few technical glitches that occured during the results, it could happen to anyone.

 

[popavapeur]

the show wasn't that bad... i liked the scoreboard for example and Conchita was a great green room host. I just compare to 2014 who was for me the best show in 5 years. Sweden 2013 wasn't exciting so i didn't expect that much from DR and I had a good show, good hosts and an excellent interval act. I liked Lise, Pilou and Nikolaj they were just what i needed in a contest like this. A little bit of fun, entertainer and get serious when they have to.
Austria 2015 is a little bit worse than Sweden 2013 but that's not a disaster.

 

[Mozz]

The semis were pretty horrible.

Especially
1. the speed (why the rush???). ORF was not exactly hosting as though hosting ESC was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

2. the camera angles. Hilariously Amateuristic.

3. Terribly clumsy, untrained hosts. Conchita was the most pro of the 4, while she had nothing really useful to say or ask.

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The final: I only thing I didn't like was the interval act. A percussion act was the best they could come up with???? In Vienna that has such a rich culture?? SIGH.

 

[marty]

i think the opening of semifinal 1 und the final were really good and much better than in the past years. copenhagen was very strong in the technical stuff but very poor in the content. well most hosts are not really good, but its difficult since they have to tell the same things every year. i dont remember any real good hosts. baku was a desaster, duesseldorf only had one good host..... and the stage was great, something different.

 

[Ezio]

I liked the scoreboard, I loved Conchita and I adored the opening. The theme song was great and so was the art design.

The stage was charming, but the concept did not work for every entry. Israel and Greece looked expensive on the stage, Iceland or Lithuania looked terrible.

The hostesses were lackluster, but we got paid with zero points, which was harsh. Under the new rules it would have been 41 points, better than Ukraine this year, yeah.

I assume ORF will host Eurovision sooner than expected again and will profit a lot from their flaws and errors. Look at Malmö 2013 and then at Stockholm 2016. Or Copenhagen 2001 and Copenhagen 2014. Kiev 2005 and Kiev 2017. Bergen 1986 and Oslo 1995. So much better at the second chance.

I think the best hosts on first try in were Finland 2007 and Germany 2010. I hope the best for Lisbon 2018.

 

[popavapeur]

that is some high level necroposting

do you like digging that much ?