QUEEN & PRINCE CONSORTS OF ENGLAND
THE PLAY-OFFS

We have finished our series reviewing all the queen and prince consorts of England from Ealhswith to Prince Philip, and now it is time to crown the series champion! There were 19 consorts who were given the Rex Factor and we are now embarking on the play-offs, where these 19 consorts will be pitted against each other across three rounds of contests. 

 

In Round 1, there will be four groups (three with 5 consorts, one with 4), and from each group, the top 3 will progress to the semi-finals (so 12 go through, 7 go out).

 

We then have the semi-finals, which consists of four groups with 3 consorts each, and the winner from each group will progress to the Grand Final, after which one of the final four consorts will become the series champion.

 

The contests are decided by an electoral college voting system: Graham is College 1, Ali is College 2, and the rest of the world is college 3. For each contest, we will produce a podcast episode, going through all of the consorts in that group, comparing them against each other, and at the end Ali and Graham will (secretly) rank the consorts in order of preference. After you have listened to each episode, you too need to rank the consorts, and through preferential voting, we will establish a ranked order for the rest of the world that will be combined with Ali and Graham's rankings to produce a final score. Except, that is, for the Grand Final, which will be decided entirely by a public vote.

 

The links to all the votes will be published on the website at the link below, so if in doubt, come back here to find all the links you need for the play-offs.

 

The play-off draw episode was released on Friday 24 January 2025, and you can watch this or listen to the audio podcast via the links above. Or, if you want to skip to the end and see the draw, then take a look below.

 

The first round episodes will be open for voting from Friday 7 February when Group is released, with each contest open for three weeks:

 

• Group A: Friday 07 February to Friday 28 February (23:59 GMT)

• Group B: Friday 14 February to Friday 07 March (23:59 GMT)

• Group C: Friday 21 February to Friday 14 March (23:59 GMT)

• Group D: Friday 28 February to Friday 21 March (23:59 GMT)

​

After this, we will reveal the results of the first round (and the semi-final draw) on Friday 28 March.