Should the commentators be neutral ?

[soulm8]

Guys, I heard that in many countries the commentators are really bias and actually this reflects the televote. In Bulgaria they just stick to the translation and don’t give any opinion about the songs. What is your opinion on this topic, how are the things in your country? In my view this is a pretty underrated topic.

 

[goncalovieira]

Oh tell that to the portuguese commentators...
However, they said wonderful things about Victoria!

 

[Laepo1]

What would Terry Wogan say

 

[A-lister]

In Sweden they were basically dissing entries they don't like and push their favs... mostly Björkman (gosh can't stand this man!)

And yes! They should be neutral (they can be witty and fun but still respectful and also not trying to influence the vote).

 

[Leydan]

It's been covered in the other threads but our commentators for the semis were AWFUL. In between all the constant piss takes, snide remarks and general disdain for the singers, songs and contest in general they were all incredibly biased. Semi 1 was wall to wall Malta Malta Malta, semi 2 it was wall to wall Iceland Iceland Iceland. Aside from them 2, there were only a couple more such as Sweden that got any level of proper coverage. Everything was mocked hard. Scott Mills didn't even know who Helena Paparizou was when she come on, and she's a Eurovision Queen, like, come on?. There wasn't even a slightest attempt at actually doing their job properly. I genuinely missed Rylan for semi commentary, while he does make some jokes it's clear hes a passionate fan and the jokes aren't derogatory at all and then he actually gives information.

I'm happy it's not just our commentators it seems but then it also shouldn't be happening at all. It seems so widespread that I feel like it should be adressed.

 

[A-lister]

It's been covered in the other threads but our commentators for the semis were AWFUL. In between all the constant piss takes, snide remarks and general disdain for the singers, songs and contest in general they were all incredibly biased. Semi 1 was wall to wall Malta Malta Malta, semi 2 it was wall to wall Iceland Iceland Iceland. Aside from them 2, there were only a couple more such as Sweden that got any level of proper coverage. Everything was mocked hard. Scott Mills didn't even know who Helena Paparizou was when she come on, and she's a Eurovision Queen, like, come on?. There wasn't even a slightest attempt at actually doing their job properly. I genuinely missed Rylan for semi commentary, while he does make some jokes it's clear hes a passionate fan and the jokes aren't derogatory at all and then he actually gives information.

I'm happy it's not just our commentators it seems but then it also shouldn't be happening at all. It seems so widespread that I feel like it should be adressed.

You seem to have a certain level of awful commentaries in the UK, Terry Wogan was also bad back in the day... but I thought Graham Norton is doing your comments? He's a fan right?

In Sweden the problem isn't that they're dissing the contest itself (thankfully), they're fans of the contest, but they can't leave out favoritism and dissing specific entries they don't like however which is problematic as it could influence the average viewer and is also disrespectful to certain acts...

 

[Leydan]

You seem to have a certain level of awful commentaries in the UK, Terry Wogan was also bad back in the day... but I thought Graham Norton is doing your comments? He's a fan right?

In Sweden the problem isn't that they're dissing the contest itself (thankfully), they're fans of the contest, but they can't leave out favoritism and dissing specific entries they don't like...

Graham does the final only, the semi final commentators has varied greatly over the years but Scott Mills has been one thats unfortunately stuck. I wouldn't say Graham is good, but hes certainly better and i do believe a fan.

That's a major issue though in itself. I'm certain it affects the voting pattern in them countries, having the commentator tell them the songs are bad good or whatever.

 

[WhoKnows]

I don't mind if they let their preferences be known in a subtle and respectful way, like, that one was lovely, or, that wasn't my favorite. But generally, I think they should be neutral and let the people decide for themselves, at least before and during voting. Especially too because usually these people trash entries not because they're objectively bad, but because they're risky or different.

Also, I think generally trashing entries, like the UK commentators do, hurts ESC reputation. That's why the UK can't get anyone relevant to take part. They've spent the last couple decades taking a piss at it.

 

[burrito]

YES

For the God's sake, let the viewers decide what to like and what to consider good. And let go of one thing - when commentators are like "those of you who live abroad, please vote for the Polish contestant". No. Vote for whomever you like the most. That is what they should say. There is no reason to encourage the public to artificially influence our result, just because we want to pretend we sent something that Europe likes, when it is the opposite of that.

 

[randajad]

To be completely honest, if we already have to have them, I would like them all to have the same script prepared by the hosting country.

 

[ekzuu]

Oh yes... Our commentator is mostly okay, but sometimes I can't stand his remarks too. Like he is quite obsessed with odds. Yesterday after Georgia peformed he immediately said 'he wasn't very happy it looks like' and 'nobody predicts it to advance'. I'm like why do you have to say this, maybe somebody wanted to vote for it but now thinks it won't go through anyway and won't vote?? He talks lot about if somebody is predicted to advance by fans and odds or not, who is predicted to win etc. It's okay but I would rather hear this after voting, when it can't impact anyones decision.
But overall he's okay, I can't complain much.

 

[Gera11]

To be completely honest, if we already have to have them, I would like them all to have the same script prepared by the hosting country.

And to translate what the actual hosts are saying!!! Gosh, I can't with our commentator talking over Nikkie.

For all its faults, it looks live TVR is doing better with the commentary than some countries. Our commentator is pretty unbiased and was even during Semifinal 1, when usually the whole commentary was a plea to vote for Romania, especially addressed to the Romanians living abroad who were watching on TVR International. I suppose after thee consecutive flops he was more mentally prepared lol. I really like that he doesn't make personal comments on the songs or artists, he just presents the artist during the postcard and that's it. I just wish he wouldn't blab random stuff when the ESC hosts speak. (and also present the green room / breaks and not have ads but that's more of a broadcaster thing)

 

[randajad]

Also back when we competed, our commentator was ok, a bit boring, but at least he didn’t trash other countries the whole time. However nowadays, since there is the YT stream, I prefer to watch the contest over YT because I cannot stand both Croatian and Serbian commentators. Croatian one is literally constantly and only talking about Croatia during the whole and every show, and the Serbian one is just plain rude.

 

[Leydan]

And to translate what the actual hosts are saying!!! Gosh, I can't with our commentator talking over Nikkie.

omg yes, this. Not that I need the translations but constantly talking over them... When they were explaining this new thing on the app (I still don't know what it is??) they felt the need to talk over them to tell us who they were and that they were talking about the app. Yes... it's in English??? let us listen.

 

[goncalovieira]

We have two based commentators.
Nuno Galopim is a big fan of the contest and music specialist. His opinions are always based on previous results of the countries and the musical quality.
José Carlos Malato is one of the RTP hosts. Does not know nothing about Eurovision and sometimes is really cringe.

However, the best commentator of last years was Silvia Alberto (ESC 2018 host). She was salty, funny without keeping away the knowledge about the competition. She was the responsible person for the comments in 2011, 2013 and 2014. Sad that RTP decided to take her out from Eurovision. Maybe because she was the main face of the contest before 2017.

 

[Sabrewulf238]

Our commentator Marty Whelan is always very neutral about the acts as he's introducing them. He might hint at what's going to happen on stage but he doesn't introduce a song by saying it's bad or anything like that. He might mention if it's a favourite or if the people at Rotterdam like them (if I remember on Thursday night he said something like that about Iceland being popular) but it doesn't really have a "here's what I think" vibe to it.

I'm pretty sure I'd get annoyed if a commentator started telling us which songs he loved and hated though....or if he started making fun of them. That would be the worst.

Marty is really the best commentator we could have.

 

[Himan]

To be completely honest, if we already have to have them, I would like them all to have the same script prepared by the hosting country.

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.

 

[soulm8]

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.

Ours are basically just translating. Only when we are qualifying they just add one “Congrats, we are in the final”. And that’s it.

 

[midnightsun]

Our long term German commentator is really annoying and I think most people will agree. He‘s clearly biased, sometimes positively towards a song (slightly) but often negatively when he‘s being sarcastic and I hate it. I do like some of his negative comments because they‘re funny, but most of the time this Wogan-wannabe just influences people by making jokes about some acts like „his voice sound like a cat“ or „now they‘re playing the pity card“ etc.

 

[tomos2019]

Terry Wogan wannabes can be annoying, that's a good point actually. I refuse to watch UK semifinal commentary because it's just Scott Mills particularly too put me off! I remember Mel Giedroyc being not too bad but I can't think of much else out of ones that stick in my mind in the last few years. I normally watched the semifinals live without commentary on YouTube but because they seem to have annoyingly started blocking them in the UK, I had to look around and eventually settled for the Irish commentary (Marty Whelan) which I actually found pretty good! It was a novelty the idea of Eurovision with adverts though sadly the live stream didn't actually let me see the Irish adverts, but as for alternatives I don't see why for example S4C can't have a Welsh language commentary of at least the grand final even if it's not an actual sovereign state because if that existed I would love that!

Terry Wogan and Graham Norton have been just about tolerable compared to whoever we're stuck with for the semifinals and although I don't know much about it I did once see a video of this French commentator from the late 00s/early 10s that had subtitles and did actually seem quite bad but I do think that, yeah, they should start having someone neutral or at least not make that big a deal about what they like or don't like.