United Kingdom: “You Decide” will feature a jury vote

The United Kingdom will use a jury vote in their national final. The BBC has released this news on Saturday. Last year, broadcaster BBC explicitly advertised a 100% televote in their show “You Decide”.

The BBC only states that a jury will vote in the show – not how the percentage split will turn out. Also nobody knows yet who will take place in the jury. The only thing that is certain, is that “You Decide” will no longer be a 100% televote decision.

Changing strategies

For several years, the United Kingdom has struggled to come up with the right formula for Eurovision. In 2014, broadcaster BBC released a document with a clear vision for the upcoming years, featuring internal selections and artists that focus on music instead of show. However, after Molly failed to reach the top 10 in Copenhagen that year, the strategy was thrown overboard.

After another dissapointing result in Vienna 2015, the BBC received a lot of criticism. In order to deal with this, they promised to fully obey the public’s choice and explicitly advertised the 100% televote in their 2016 format “You Decide”. Despite another low result for Joe & Jake in Stockholm, it was announced that “You Decide” would return this year.

However, a few changes had already been made to the format. Six artists compete, in a bigger venue and a more important BBC tv-channel. And now, on top of that, a jury has been reintroduced. Will this help get the UK back on track? Let us know your views in the comment section!