FAQ
What is the Eurovision Audience Poll?
The Eurovision Audience Poll works by asking people who have attended the first public rehearsal of each of Eurovision’s three live shows about who their favourites were. We then publish the results of that poll each evening to show what the audience thought!
Why are you running an Audience Poll?
The rollercoaster of speculation that takes place in the Eurovision bubble exists most on two questions. Who will win the Eurovision Song Contest, and who will qualify. We hope that our poll of audience members who have seen the full three minutes of their Eurovision-ready performances may help to formulate these predictions, and at the very worst they will add to the speculation about them.
How will you get results?
We will have members of the different collaborating websites standing outside the Eurovision Arena in Vienna, Austria. The locations we will be standing in have been agreed beforehand with event security for everybody’s ease of mind. As people are leaving the venue and walk past us we will ask audience members who their favourite performance was.
What question will you ask people?
The question we have agreed to ask each other is “who was your favourite tonight”, and, if we need to clarify this, we mean only from the competing entries in the Eurovision Song Contest.
How do you cope with people that can’t choose one favourite?
We will ask the question in the singular, expecting one answer from the person answering. If the responder elicits more than one name we will record each of them, but we will not encourage this. We do this to try and get as many scores as possible in the short time window so hopefully the full range from first place to last place sees points awarded. Our philosophy is more data is better than no data.
What do you do about the Big 5/host country taking part in the Semi Finals?
If poll responses include a Big 5/host country in their answer(s), we will record them. However we will not include those votes in the Semi Final rankings. Instead we will offset any scores for the Big 5/host country to the side of the main graphic, so their scores do not interfere with the Semi Final ranking and the poll’s ‘prediction’ for who will qualify.
Obviously, audience members may themselves filter out this by choosing to answer with a Semi Finalist rather than a Grand Final pre-qualified act. We often do not have time as people flow past the arena for explanations, so you as the viewer need to take results like that with a pinch of salt.
Do people have to vote?
No, people can choose not to vote when we ask them.
What happens in the case of a tie?
Should two songs be awarded the same number of points then the song that is drawn earlier in the running order will be given the higher placing in our poll results
When will the results be published?
Assuming a typical Eurovision schedule, on Monday and Wednesday evenings the Press Centre at the Arena closes at 01:00. Our aim is to publish the poll at around 00:30.
On Friday the Press Centre closes at 02:00 on Saturday morning, and we aim to publish the poll results at 01:45.
How can I find out about the result first?
The best advice we can give would be to follow one or more of the collaborating sites on social media. We have agreed to keep the results secret until a set publishing time, and we will then share that image on our own individual social media once it is published simultaneously.
Which sites are collaborating on producing the poll?
For this fourth year of The Eurovision Audience Poll we will ask different ESC community websites and media constellations to collaborate on its organisation and the administration of the Audience Poll. After accreditations for Vienna are confirmed will we confirm the groups that will be helping out.
How is this different from the ESCXtra Press Poll?
ESCXtra has a tradition of running polls of journalists during Eurovision week to ask who their favourites were from rehearsals. It is planned that they continue. The difference between the Audience Poll and the Press Poll is in who is being asked – in this case by asking people inside the arena for the evening preview show we hope to get a more representative group of people compared to the press bubble, as well as a larger number of people.
How can we get in touch to discuss the Eurovision Audience Poll?
Representatives from any of the collaborating site on the poll would be happy to speak more about it. On the Contact page you can find links tothose Eurovision community sites as well as Ben Robertson who is managing this project for 2026.
