I've been wondering... Is there a reason why we have an out of competition opening show for the past few years? Would it not be a better idea to replace it by a competitor? Or do the organizers get special funding for the opening show?

That's a good question! I suspect (though I have no evidence of this) that the opening show helps prepare the jury for their task. In the past, when the opening show was a competing show, it seemed it was virtually impossible, statistically speaking, to win Gold. I know that Fred did the analysis once. As much as the jury are trained by watching videos, seeing a display from the seats at La Ronde is a very different experience and, if you have no reference, it's hard to judge the first show fairly (more likely to be under-marked, I'd think, in case subsequent displays are better). There's certainly more winners from the 2nd half of the competition than the first.

Personally, I'd like to see at least 7 competitors - then the odds of winning any particular prize are lower than 50/50. I liked the years we had 9 competing shows and then a closing

Paul.

I would vote for one more contestant instead of an off-competition opening show anytime!

the opening show helps prepare the jury for their task

This is obvious, but this is unlikely the reason (or one of the reasons) why the first show is off-competition. I would hypothesize that financial reasons are at stake. We may hypothesize that budget production is somewhat lower (while I don't know about it), and it is one way to have one more Canadian or American company in the line-up, thus reducing transportation cost (once again, I don't have evidence, these a just speculations).

In the past, when the opening show was a competing show, it seemed it was virtually impossible, statistically speaking, to win Gold. I know that Fred did the analysis once.

That is true, but there is collinearity with another variable: when the opening show wasn't a competing one, we also had more contestants; not just one more, but typically two, or even three more, contestants (with 10 shows per year instead of 8). The first entrant is obviously more likely to win with a 6-contestant line-up than with a 8- or 9-contestant one. So it is hard to isolate the “opening show” variable to explain the outcome.

Fred

Hi Enkil,

I am also in favor of replacing the opening with an actual competitor, increasing the number of competitors to 7 (assuming a continued 8-display year)! It would definitely make things so much more interesting. That said, this was probably the most enjoyable opening (for me, anyway), mostly because of the musical selection!

Trav.