Hi guys
Just to let you know that we've sold over half the tickets for this Thursday, so if you're thinking of coming, best to buy your ticket in advance. When they're gone, they're gone.
The Sitcom Mission 2012 Page 70
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What's the method for determining who gets through to the semi finals? Is it audience vote, judges vote or some combination of the 2? Basically is it worth packing the audience with hired cronies?
Simon and I shall decide on one from each heat to go through to the Semi-finals and the other one will be from the audience vote. The method we use is a preferential voting system in which the audience have to rank their sitcoms from 1 - 4, with each 1 getting 4 votes and each 2 getting 3 votes etc. The sitcom with the highest total goes through. This removes the point of tactical voting and the winner is more likely to be the sitcom with most overall appeal rather than the one with the most mates.
Who are the judges?
Quote: Declan @ April 3 2012, 10:00 PM BSTSimon and I shall decide on one from each heat to go through to the Semi-finals and the other one will be from the audience vote. The method we use is a preferential voting system in which the audience have to rank their sitcoms from 1 - 4, with each 1 getting 4 votes and each 2 getting 3 votes etc. The sitcom with the highest total goes through. This removes the point of tactical voting and the winner is more likely to be the sitcom with most overall appeal rather than the one with the most mates.
Cheers Declan, seems like a fair compromise. What will be the criteria for the semis/final?
Same again for the Semis. The Grand Final is so far being judged by Lucy Lumsden (Head of Comedy, Sky TV) and Sarah Farrell (Director of Content, Comedy Central). I'm working on the others.
Quote: Declan @ April 3 2012, 10:00 PM BSTThe method we use is a preferential voting system in which the audience have to rank their sitcoms from 1 - 4, with each 1 getting 4 votes and each 2 getting 3 votes etc. The sitcom with the highest total goes through. This removes the point of tactical voting and the winner is more likely to be the sitcom with most overall appeal rather than the one with the most mates.
Actually it doesn't. This system is MORE open to tactical voting than a simple one-punter one-vote, because it gives you the power to affect the fate of every sitcom, rather than just one.
The way to play this system is to ask your mates to vote for your sitcom as number one, and then the other three in reverse order of quality. That way your closest competition will receive fewest marks.
In short, if the voting system doesn't take into account the number of people in the room, then you'll always have an advantage packing it with your mates.
Quote: andyblacksheep @ April 4 2012, 12:38 PM BST
The way to play this system is to ask your mates to vote for your sitcom as number one, and then the other three in reverse order of quality. That way your closest competition will receive fewest marks.
So the worst sitcom wins because the friends of all the others all give it 3 points. 
The point is still valid though. Game playing can/will occur - 2 years ago I told all my friends to vote honestly but several still voted for the one they thought worst as second choice to 'help me out'. The only way to avoid it is to take the audience vote out altogether, but this will affect attendance (as has been noted in previous years).
Even if there is no vote then packing the audience with your mates who laugh loudly at yours and give everyone else stony silence will help.
The best way is for everyone to treat it as a showcase opportunity rather than a competition. But that is quite hard with the prize at stake. And the general mistrust of human nature prevalent amongst writers and humans in general.
Of course, anything would be preferable to letting Simon and Declan decide since they failed to spot the quality of my submission, and so clearly cannot be trusted.
When I invented the whole audience voting for sitcoms idea I always envisaged it as a thing that would work when we ended up on TV. In the live shows it always had to be taken with a pinch of salt or seen as a bit of fun, otherwise it was heading for trouble.
When Dec & Si's Sitcom Trials began being run as a tournament in 07, this problem started becoming more serious, hence their introduction of a panel of judges. Unless you get a voting audience that's too large to be swayed by one group of voters, an audience-only vote will be in danger of bias.
Mind you, seeing the very public problems TV shows like Strictly and Britain's Got Talent have had with voting, maybe the whole idea is flawed.
That said, Johnny Ball did a very good piece on last night's Bang Goes The Theory demonstrating how a small sample can be extrapolated to give accurate large figures. But since I clearly didn't understand it, I won't dwell.
I would urge everyone participating in the Mission or the Trials to remember that it's not necessarily the winning but the taking part that counts. Julie Bower had a script in last Friday's Sitcom Trials in Bristol, and it was only as I was apologising for not describing her as a former Trials winner that she had to remind me that she wasn't a former winner at all. Her House on Cedar Street, which went on to be made as a radio pilot by the BBC, was in fact only a runner up in the Spring 09 Trials final.
And being a runner up doesn't seem to have done Susan Boyle, Olly Murs, or One Direction any harm. So make the most of your moment in the spotlight and be the funniest. Like Susan Boyle.
Kev F
Good luck to all those in the showcases, and particularly those on tonight. Enjoy it.
Oh, and good luck to Simon and Declan with the newish format.
We're constantly tweaking the voting system to try to make sure that it's the fairest possible system.
We're open to ideas; what do you suggest?
Quote: Ponderer @ April 5 2012, 9:41 AM BSTGood luck to all those in the showcases, and particularly those on tonight. Enjoy it.
Oh, and good luck to Simon and Declan with the newish format.
How'd it go? Who won? Any photos, videos or reviews?
Hello All
Sorry for the radio silence. The reason will come apparent at the end of this post.
We had a great night of comedy last night, and were very proud of all of the sitcoms that we chose to put on. It's been a long journey from putting the word up on October 1st (which seems a lifetime away) to the first live show. 400 sitcoms read, and now down to the last 16.
The Union Tavern upstairs room is a fantastic intimate venue and the 65-strong crowd, including a front row sitting on sofas to give it that added 'at home in front of the telly' feel, were treated to excellent performances in four quality sitcoms.
Comperes for the night were the superb Bob and Jim who were worth the ticket money alone.
First up was Simon Mackness's Non Stop Drop, the tale of a washed-up has-been actor who was still living the dream, working for a TV channel selling replica jewellery in the early hours while waiting for his agent to ring.
Second was Dec Taaffe and Chris Jeal's Also-Rans, the story of a bunch of building site workers who've known each other since childhood and haven't progressed much since the playground.
After the interval, Dan Austin's Cold Front took to the stage - the very Radio 4-esque celebration of the struggles of an unwanted Antarctic scientific unit to keep their funding and justify their existence.
The final sitcom of the evening was Sarah Christou's Keep Off The Grass - an everyday tale of the Alumni Office at an Oxford University, on this occasion having to deal with a lecherous academic, his wandering hands and some disappearing silverware.
The audience voted in favour of Keep Off The Grass, which we'll see in the Semi-final on April 30th at the New Diorama Theatre. Details are here http://newdiorama.com/whats-on-at-new-diorama.aspx?id=129
We hadn't released the results of the show until now because Simon and I had the responsibility of putting another sitcom through to the Semis. Not as easy as you might think, and we want to get these decisions right. So we took 24 hours to sleep on it and think it over.
And we're very pleased to congratulate Dec Taaffe and Chris Jeal for Also-Rans, which we'll see in the Semi-final on May 1st.
Tickets are still available for the second Quarter-final next Thursday https://www.comedy.co.uk/sitcom_mission/shows/
Cheers, Declan and Simon
All booked for Thursday evening. Looking forward to it : )
Sitcom Mission 2012 Second Quarter-Final at the Union Tavern in Clerkenwell.
This Thursday, April 12.
Four sitcoms enter, two sitcoms leave.
MCs McNeil and Pamphilon.