Chummervision Song Contest

The Chummervision Song Contest is a bi-annual competition held among active member countries of the Chummerpean Broadcasting Union (CBU).

Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition. The contest has been broadcast every 6 months since its inauguration in February 2012 and is the most watched television programme and non-sporting event in Chummerope, with audience figures reportedly being between 300 to 500 million.

Hosting
The current generic logo was introduced for the first 2012 Chummervision Song Contest in Grobania, to create a consistent visual identity. The host country's flag appears in the heart of the generic logo. Each year of the contest, the host country creates a sub-theme which is usually accompanied and expressed with a sub-logo and slogan. The theme and slogan are announced by the CBU and the host country's national broadcaster.

Chummervision Week
The term "Chummervision Week" is used to refer to the week during which the contest takes place. As it is a live show, the Chummervision Song Contest requires the performers to have perfected their acts in rehearsals in order for the big night to run smoothly. In addition to rehearsals in their home countries, every participant is given the opportunity to rehearse on the stage in the Chummervision auditorium. These rehearsals are held during the course of several days before the Sunday show, and consequently the delegations arrive in the host city many days before the event. Journalists and fans are also present during the preceding days, and so the events of Chummervision last a lot longer than a few hours of television. A number of officially accredited hotels are selected for the delegations to stay in, and shuttle-bus services are used to transport the performers and accompanying people to and from the contest venue.

Voting
The voting system for the Chummervision Song Contest has been in place since Winter 2012, and is a positional voting system. Countries award a set of points from 1 to 8, then 10 and finally 12 to other songs in the competition — with the favourite song being awarded 12 points.

A country's set of votes is decided by televoting, where viewers from each country vote via phone or SMS for their favourite song(s). The songs with the most votes are then compiled in order in the form of points.

Presentation of votes
After the interval act is over, when all the points have been calculated, the presenter(s) of the show call upon each voting country in turn to invite them to announce the results of their vote. Votes are read out in ascending order, culminating with the maximum 12 points.

Tiebreak
In the event two or more countries receive the same amount of points, a count is made of the total number of countries who awarded any points at all to each of the tied countries, and the one who received points from the most countries is placed ahead. If the numbers are still tied, it is counted how many sets of maximum marks (12 points) each country received. If there is still a tie, the numbers of 10-point scores awarded are compared—and then the numbers of 8-points, all the way down the list.

Big Four
Since the Summer 2012 contest, Aitze, Dandenia, the UOCT Republic and W'ree have automatically qualified for the Chummervision final, regardless of their positions on the scoreboard in previous contests. They earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the CBU (without which the production of the Chummervision Song Contest would not be possible). Due to their untouchable status, these countries became known as the "Big Four". Since the introduction of semi finals, the host also qualifies, meaning that a maximum possibility of five countries can automatically qualify.

Sia, a country that currently does not participate in the contest, would automatically receive a status as one of the "big" countries, taking the big four to a big five, if they ever decided to make their debut. This is due to the country's wealth and influence on the economy of Chummerope. However, as of to date (June 2013), Sia has no intentions of entering the contest in the near future.

Semi-finals
A qualification round, known as the semi-finals, were introduced for the Summer 2012 contest. They are held on the Wednesday and Friday during Chummervision Week, and are similar in format to the grand final. The highest-placed songs from the semi-finals qualify for the grand final, while the lower-placed songs are eliminated.

All participating countries have to participate in the semi-finals. The only countries which automatically qualify for the grand final are the host country, and the Big Four: Aitze, Dandenia, the UOCT Republic, and W'ree.

In each of the semi-finals the voting is conducted among those countries which participate in that semi-final in question. The automatic grand final qualifiers also vote for the semi-finals, with 2 voting in one, and 2/3 voting in the other. In contrast, every participating country in a particular year may vote in the Sunday grand final — whether their song qualified from the semi-final or not.

After the votes have been cast in each semi-final, the countries which received the most votes—and will therefore proceed to the grand final on Sunday—are announced by name by the presenters. Full voting results are withheld until after the grand final, whereupon they are published on the CBU's website.