Country Games I

* South Korea
* South Africa
* United Kingdom
* United States
* CCU (guest)
* ▶

***The Country Games I*** is an international television music competition to determine the most beautiful countries across the globe. The first series began airing on 6 October 2017 and finished later that month. Every week introduced a new presenter for the series of the main show and no one presented spin-off show *The Xtra Factor*.

South Korea, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States were chosen as the judging countries meaning they were ineligible to participate this edition. With these countries chosen from each continent, professional juries and televote from the countries would vote in early rounds to decide who to put through.

The judging countries were permitted to choose one country to auto-qualify once up until the fifth live show; this was as the competition was more serious in the second half of the live shows. They decided that Australia should be auto-qualified from the second live-show, owing to the nation's bottom three appearance in the first show.

The first five shows had double elimination, with the country with least votes automatically and the second from a nation-off. The remaining shows had one country being eliminated from a prolonged nation-off.

The winning country of the contest will serve as the leading judge in the next edition; though meaning that the country would not participate the following edition. Additionally, the contest would take place in the country if not declined by the broadcaster.

## Judges, presenters and other personnel

Series 1 judges
The CCU decided a respectable country from each continent to serve as a judge which ultimately became South Korea, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States.

## Finalists

Key:

     – Winner
     – Runner-up
     – Third place

## Live shows

### **Results summary**

Colour key

      – | Contestant received the most public votes

### **Week 1 (6/7 October)**

* Host(s): Jim Parsons
* Theme: Capital City
* National guests: United States ("Welcome to America")

Nations' vote to eliminate
* South Korea: Algeria – no reason
* South Africa: Australia – no reason
* United Kingdom: Algeria – no reason
* United States: Algeria – no reason

### **Week 2 (8/9 October)**

* Host(s): Ty Burrell
* Theme: Sister City
* National guests: United States ("Visit Seattle")
* Auto-qualifier: Australia **(South Korea)**

Nations' vote to eliminate
* South Korea: Portugal – no reason
* South Africa: Portugal – no reason
* United Kingdom: Tunisia – no reason
* United States: Tunisia – no reason

### **Week 3 (10/11 October)**

* Host(s): Gina Rodriguez
* Theme: Towns
* National guests: South Africa ("Visit Johannesburg")

Nations' vote to eliminate
* South Korea: Indonesia – no reason
* South Africa: Indonesia – no reason
* United Kingdom: Indonesia – no reason
* United States: Indonesia – no reason

### **Week 4 (12/13 October)**

* Host(s): Maia Mitchell
* Theme: Large City
* National guests: South Korea ("Visit Pyeongchang")

Nations' vote to eliminate
* South Korea: Bulgaria – no reason
* South Africa: Bulgaria – no reason
* United Kingdom: Brazil – no reason
* United States: Bulgaria – no reason

### **Week 5 (14/15 October)**

* Host(s): Joseph Morgan
* Theme: Other capital
* National guests: United Kingdom ("Visit London")

Nations' vote to eliminate
* South Korea: France – no reason
* South Africa: Italy – no reason
* United Kingdom: Italy – no reason
* United States: France – no reason

### **Week 6 (16/17 October)**

* Also known as: Quarter-final
* Host(s): Camila Mendes
* Theme:
	+ First city (chosen by Judges)
	+ Second city (free choice)
* National guests: Country Contest Union ("A Visit Around the Globe")

This live show marked the first to not include immediate elimination; this was as by now the competition was only left with six countries and had become much more serious. Additionally, America, Asia-Pacific and Europe all had a fair chance as they were respectively left with two countries; though meaning that Africa had been eliminated from the race.

Canada, a country that had never been stable in the bookmaker odds, jumped to first place after being the only country left to never place in the bottom three. However, some professionals argued that "it had been a matter of strategy" but that given Canada is the second largest country "it wasn't much of a problem." By this show, South Africa was forced to pick a continent to "cheer for", but refused due to "wanting to cheer for countries themselves, rather than continents as a whole."

To help decide which countries should advance to the semi-final, the  Country Contest Union served as guest judges. Still, three votes were counted as majority but unlike last time, two votes resulted in automatic nation-off elimination (meaning that deadlock was impossible).

Nations' vote to eliminate
* South Korea: Portugal – no reason
* South Africa: Portugal – no reason
* United Kingdom: Portugal – no reason
* United States: Portugal – no reason
* CCU (guest): Portugal – no reason

### **Week 7: Semi-final (18/19 October)**

* Host(s): Emilia Clarke
* Theme: City to Qualify
* National guests: United States ("Tour Over America")

The semi-final had an evident advantage for America and Asia, as Europe remained with just one act despite being the leading continent for the first five rounds. Still, Canada had never ended in the bottom three or two, as odds for the nation winning shortened. Brazil had also been speculated as the non-qualifier given its part in the bottom two for two times now.

The judging countries put the vote to deadlock, something Canada did not expect when choosing their original city for the show. As Brazil had a marginal lead over Canada in the live show originally, it won the deadlock vote and progressed over Canada to the final.

Nations' vote to eliminate
* South Korea: Canada – no reason
* South Africa: Canada – no reason
* United Kingdom: Brazil – no reason
* United States: Brazil – no reason

### **Week 8: Final (20/21 October)**

* Host(s): Alexandra Chando (Saturday); Emilia Clarke & Ty Burrell (Sunday)
* Theme: Previous Weeks, Free Choice (Saturday); Best Placing City, Previous Weeks (Sunday)
* National guests: United States ("TBA") and ("TBA"), Country Contest Union ("TBA") and ("TBA"), United Kingdom ("TBA"), South Korea ("TBA"), South Africa ("TBA")

The final saw the Asia-Pacific have a two-country advantage over the other continents, something that was not expected given Brazil's bottom threes/twos and Canada's perfect record up until last week.

During the show, it was revealed that the finalists' week-by-week score from week 1 to the first stage of the final would accustom fifty percent of their result, while the other fifty would be from the day itself. This was later explained to assure that the country had, if not always, at least mostly strong city performances throughout the competition.

During the first round of the final, it was announced that the country who had the least percentage of votes throughout the past 7 weeks would be automatically eliminated, before the remaining 3 countries battled for the final spot in the "Sunday final".

Nations' performances on eighth live show
 Australia | 1
 Italy | 2
 Brazil | 3
 Vietnam | 4

Nations' performances on eighth live show
 Australia | 1
 Italy | 2

## Controversies

### **Canadian semi-final elimination**

After being called out Safe for all past six weeks, Canada was not announced as one of the Safe acts in the semi-final with its city Toronto. Brazil, now being not called Safe for the third time had to compete with Canada in the nation-off for the last spot in the final.

South Korea and South Africa chose to eliminate Canada, whilst the UK and US chose to eliminate Brazil. Professionals claimed that both South Korea and Africa made a deal with TV Brasil to allow Brazil to qualify to the final. The vote went to deadlock, which meant that the public vote in the first round was the deciding factor - in which Brazil "narrowly beat" Canada.

The same reason also affected Morocco in week 6 (though had no chance to defend themselves) and France, both who'd never been in the nation-off. Days after the elimination, CBC stated that they weren't satisfied with the result but that nations should be given "a warning" or "another phase of public vote" to defend themselves as, in their case, had no idea what was coming.

The CCU later stated that they had put those suggestions in consideration, and that some format changes for the next edition would be revealed in due course.