The United Kingdom came within a whisker of earning a solitary point at the final of the Eurovision Song Contest last night, it has emerged.
James Newman and his track 'Embers' came last out of the 26 countries participating in the contest, earning zero points from the professional juries and zero points from the viewer voting.
The result equalled Jemini's disastrous nul points result from 2003 and meant that the UK finished rock bottom in successive contests, having also propped up the leaderboard in 2019 with Michael Rice.
The European Broadcasting Union has now released detailed voting breakdowns for the 38 countries eligible to vote - and it makes grim reading for the UK.
Viewers in 12 of the 38 countries ranked the UK in bottom position on the night, with a further seven countries placing the UK in penultimate position.
All of the other countries bar one ranked the UK in 20th place or lower, with the Maltese public bucking the trend and putting 'Embers' in 14th.
The professional juries were slightly kinder to Newman, meanwhile, although Croatia and Iceland ranked him last and a further eight countries - including France and Portugal - put him one from last.
The jury from Poland ranked the UK in 11th place - just one spot away from earning one point, which instead went the way of Russia.
Other relatively favourable jury scores came from the Czech Republic (13th), Bulgaria (14th), Norway (14th), Serbia (14th), Malta (15th) and Latvia (15th).
Newman's double zero from the juries and the voting public marked the first time that a country earned two 'nul points' scores since the separation of the voting into two scores in 2016.
Neil Wilkes
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