Talent Show Judging App
Scoring sheet on the judges' phones, ranking on the big screen, free
A talent show in JudgeMate is a judge-scored category: each judge scores every act on criteria you define, such as technique, stage presence and originality, each with its own weight. The server totals the panel after every act and the ranking shows live on a big screen. Free for organizers, no app to install.
What goes on a talent show scoring sheet?
The scoring sheet is a list of criteria, each with a name, a score range and a weight. A school talent show with mixed acts (singing, dance, comedy, instrumental) usually works with four:
- Technique (0–10, weight 1.5) — the skill in the act itself: pitch, timing, footwork, delivery.
- Stage presence (0–10, weight 1.0) — confidence, use of the stage, contact with the audience.
- Originality (0–10, weight 1.0) — choice of material, arrangement, surprise.
- Overall impression (0–10, weight 0.5) — the judge's call after the act.
JudgeMate stores this sheet once per category. Every judge sees the same four fields on the phone, in the same order, for every act. The weight multiplies the score before the total: a 9 in Technique counts 13.5, a 9 in Overall impression counts 4.5. The organizer picks whether the server sums the criteria or averages them, and sets the range per criterion, so a 1–5 star sheet and a 0–100 sheet work the same way.
How do judges score from their phones?
Each judge opens the event in the phone browser and signs in with a free JudgeMate account, with Google or with an email link. The organizer adds the judge to the category's panel, or approves the judge's request to join, and from then on the judge sees the act list and the scoring sheet. There is no app to install and nothing to print.
During the show the judge taps a score per criterion and sends the act. The server recalculates the total for the whole panel after every submission. If a judge forgets to send, the organizer sees which acts still have missing scores before anything is announced. Three judges and 24 acts make 72 sheets, and nobody adds them up by hand.
When does the audience see the ranking?
Two options, set per category.
- Live. Every sent score updates the public results page at once. The link and QR code go in the program, the audience follows the ranking on their own phones, and the big-screen version of the page runs on the projector or the venue TV with large type and automatic scrolling.
- Head judge gate. Judges send, nothing is published until the head judge releases the act. The ranking stays frozen through the show and the host reads the final order from a page nobody has seen.
A talent show with a public vote for a crowd favourite runs it as an audience poll, a separate feature. The audience votes from the results page on their phones; the poll result sits beside the judges' ranking and does not change it. An event can also stay private while you set it up: a private event's results link opens for nobody until you publish.
What do organizers set up before the show?
- Event and category. One event for the night; one category per contest, for example Solo, Group and Under 12, each with its own sheet and its own judges.
- Acts. Enter the acts yourself by name, with no account needed for them, or import the list from a spreadsheet. Acts can also register online through the event link; set an entry limit and the rest lands on a waiting list that you move up by hand.
- Judges. Three to five people on the panel, one of them head judge if you want the gate.
- Rounds. A semi-final and a final run as two rounds of the same category; the organizer decides whether only the best round counts, the rounds add up, or the average decides.
- After the show. Results export to PDF and Excel, and diplomas print from the same results.
The interface runs in English, Polish, German and Spanish, so each judge scores in their own language. The rest of the organizer toolkit is on the features page.
Set up your event
Free for organizers. No athlete cap. No commission on registrations. See cheerleading features · Organizer guide
Other scenarios
Beauty pageant
Score sheets with weighted phases, five judges on phones, server-side tabulation and a head judge sign-off before the envelope moment.
Science fair
The judging rubric as criteria with points, three judges per project, rankings per category and a PDF with the breakdown for teachers.
Hackathon
Weighted criteria, a panel scoring 30 pitches from phones, sponsor tracks as separate categories and a ranking on the stage screen.