Set up scoring this week.

Why scoring setup happens now, not pageant week.

The most common pageant-night disasters aren't logistics. They're scoring problems that should have been caught two months ago: a category configured with the wrong score range, judges who can't log in fifteen minutes before they're supposed to score, a tabulation that doesn't account for a tie-breaker the director never told the platform about.

The fix is simple in principle: set up scoring the same week you publish your registration page, then run a complete test before the first contestant has paid. If something doesn't fit Bombyhead, you find out with two months of runway, not two hours.

How the free scoring system works.

The free scoring system is intentionally simple, which means the vocabulary is small. Here's the whole model:

• Areas of Competition are the things judges score — Interview, Beauty, Talent, Evening Gown. Each area gets one score from each judge (not sub-criteria).
• Each area has a weight — a percentage of the total. Weights across all non-optional areas must add up to 100. Interview 30, Beauty 30, Talent 25, Evening Gown 15 is a typical split.
• Each area has a number of judges. You can have a different panel scoring Interview than scoring Talent if your show works that way. Most pageants use the same panel for all areas.
• Areas can be optional. An optional area is scored but doesn't count toward the overall ranking — useful for stand-alone awards like Most Photogenic.
• Areas can be assigned to specific divisions — handy when, say, only the Miss division does Talent.
• Score range applies to all areas — one minimum and one maximum for the whole pageant. Common: 1–10 or 1–100.
• All you need is your judges. Judges enter scores on a phone, tablet or laptop, and tabulation is automatic. Everything else is a hat you can wear yourself or hand to a helper: the Tabulator view shows the running tally, the Emcee view shows each contestant's photo, bio and answers (no scores), and an optional Auditor view shows every score change, read-only. Each has its own login, already created for you.
• Tabulation is automatic. Each judge's score for an area is averaged with the other judges scoring that area, the area average is multiplied by its weight, the weighted scores sum into the contestant's total. Highest total wins.

Set up your areas of competition.

From your dashboard, click Setup Scoring Criteria. You'll land on the Scoring Configuration page. The first table is Areas of Competition — that's where you define what judges score and how it's weighted.

Click Add Competition to add an area. For each one, set:

• Name. What the area is called on the judge's screen — Beauty, Interview, Talent, Evening Gown. Use the name contestants and judges already know.
• Number of judges. How many people will score this area. Most pageants use the same number across every area, but you can vary it (e.g., a 5-judge interview panel and a 3-judge talent panel).
• Weight. The area's percentage of the total. Weights across all non-optional areas must add up to 100. The system will warn you if they don't.
• Optional. A dropdown with three choices. No — the area counts toward the overall ranking. Yes — a stand-alone award (Most Congenial, Best Interview) that's scored but doesn't count toward the overall. Photo — a stand-alone award judged from the photos contestants uploaded at registration, like Photogenic; see Chapter 10. Optional areas don't need a weight.
• Divisions. Pick which divisions this area applies to. Most areas apply to all divisions; uncheck the ones it doesn't apply to (e.g., Talent might only apply to the Miss and Teen divisions).

Below the table, set the Score Range — the minimum and maximum a judge can enter. Defaults are 0 and 100. Common alternatives: 1–10 (simpler for judges) or 1–100 (more granular). One range applies to every area.

What the free scoring system supports today.

Read this list as "if you need any of these, Bombyhead's free scoring can do it":

What it doesn't (yet) support.

Read this list as "if you need any of these, the free Bombyhead scoring isn't the right tool — review PageantScore.com (our sister product) and other judging platforms to see which one fits your scoring rules."

The free Bombyhead scoring is intentionally simple. We don't plan to add the items below — keeping the system small is what makes it reliable. We can't promise PageantScore covers every gap either; it's a separate platform with its own capabilities, so look at what it actually does before committing.

Add your judges. Bring in help if you want it.

Judges are the only people you need. The tabulator, emcee and auditor logins already exist; use them yourself, hand them to a helper, or ignore them. Whatever you use, set it up now so any "I can't log in" issues surface during setup, not fifteen minutes before crowning.

Pageant Judges. Click Add Judge for each one and type the judge's name. Bombyhead gives each judge a random Login ID — keep it. A first name is easy for someone else to guess, and the Login ID is what records a score as that judge's.

Send each judge their login. Add the judge's email in the Email column, then click the send icon beside it. Bombyhead emails the judge their Login ID, your contest ID, and a button that opens their scoring page — and if they reply, it comes to you. No email for a judge? Copy their Quick Link, which pre-fills their login, and text it instead.

Tabulator (you, or a helper). One Tabulator login per pageant, set under Pageant Tabulator. The Tabulator watches scores come in, sees the running tally, finds missing scores, and closes each round. The math is automatic, so in a small pageant the director usually keeps this link on their own phone. Multiple people can share the Tabulator login.

Emcee (optional). One Emcee login per pageant, set under Pageant Emcee. The Emcee sees every contestant by division and number, with their photo, bio and registration answers, and can keep notes for each one — pronunciations, hometowns — plus notes for the whole show. It shows no scores; the Tabulator hands the Emcee the results.

Auditor (optional). A read-only login, set under Pageant Auditor, for an independent auditor if you want one. It shows every score as entered and flags any score changed afterward — and how long afterward. Without an auditor, nothing is lost: every score is still logged, and the tabulator's note explains any flagged change.

Email each login you use. Every role has an Email column and a send icon, just like the judges. The Tabulator and Emcee logins are shared, so you can list several emails separated by commas. Each email includes that role's how-to video.

Things to tell every login holder in advance:

• Do a practice run the week before. In scoring setup, load practice contestants, send each judge their login link, and ask them to score a few on the phone, tablet or laptop they’ll bring. Then reset the scores and load your real contestants. A lost link or a dead battery turns up while there’s still time to fix it.
• Any device works. On a phone, judges get a phone view: one contestant at a time, the number pad, and Previous / Next. A laptop or tablet shows the full grid, and either view can be switched from the scoring page. Charge it the night before.
• The venue needs Wi-Fi. Scores save as the judge enters them, so a connection drop mid-pageant is recoverable but stressful. Confirm the venue has working Wi-Fi at least a week before the show.
• The login URL is bombyhead.com/tally.html. They'll need their Login ID and the contest ID. The login email and the Quick Link both carry them, so the judge never has to type either.
• Each judge needs their own Login ID. Don't share between judges. The audit trail depends on knowing who scored what. Each judge sees only their own scores — never another judge's.
• Send a practice invite two weeks before the show. They should be able to log in, see test contestants, and click around without entering real scores. See Chapter 07.

Load contestants, then test the full flow.

This is the most important chapter in the guide. Setting up scoring isn't done until you've watched the system tabulate against real-shaped data. Bombyhead makes this much easier than it sounds — there's a one-click test mode that loads dummy contestants and random scores so you can verify everything works without having to fake-judge thirty real people.

How contestants reach the scoring system in production:

• If you collected registrations on Bombyhead — after registration closes, click Load Registered Contestants Into Judging System. Everyone who paid an entry fee is pulled in.
• If you collected registrations elsewhere — click Import Contestants and upload a CSV with three columns: name, division, email. Bombyhead handles the rest.

The test flow, before the real contestants are loaded:

1. Click Load Test Contestants and Random Scores from the Testing section near the bottom of the Scoring Configuration page. This loads a roster of dummy contestants and pre-fills random judge scores for them, so the system has data to tabulate.
2. Open your Tabulator Quick Link in one browser tab. You'll see the running tally — placements, totals per area, the math that produces a winner. Take a moment to convince yourself the rankings make sense given the random scores. If something looks off (weights misadding, an area absent, scores in the wrong direction), this is the moment to find it.
3. Open one Judge Quick Link in another browser (or an incognito window). You'll see the test contestants ready to score. Enter scores for one or two — confirm the score range matches what you set, the area names are right, and submission feels smooth.
4. Refresh your Tabulator tab. The new scores you just entered should flow through to the tally instantly.
5. Open the Emcee Quick Link in a third browser/tab. Confirm every contestant appears in the right division and order, with the photo and bio you expect.
6. Click View Contestant Scoresheets from the Scoresheets section. Look at one of the test contestants' sheets. Read it the way a contestant or parent would. Anything confusing, ugly, or wrong? Email us before it goes out for real.
7. When you're done, click Reset Scores to clear the test data. Judges and Tabulators will need to refresh their pages to see the cleared state.

What to expect on pageant night.

If you've followed Chapters 01–07, the show itself is the easy part. Here's what to know:

• Judges sign in once and stay signed in. Their scoring screen stays open the whole show. As contestants come up, judges score them and submit. Scores save instantly.
• The Tabulator watches the math live. Often that's you, on your phone. They don't have to do anything except sit somewhere with a screen and confirm rankings as the show progresses. Tabulation is automatic — the Tabulator's job is to verify, not to compute.
• The Emcee works from their notes. Their page has every contestant's introduction and their own notes. When it's time to crown, the Tabulator gives them the results.
• If a judge loses connection mid-show, scores already entered are safe. Worst case: pull them off the venue's Wi-Fi and onto a phone hotspot for ten minutes. Don't ask them to "start over."
• Crowning is whatever you make it. Bombyhead doesn't do anything magical at crowning — the math is just instantly ready when the Tabulator says go. The director picks the moment.
• Scoresheets are ready when scoring closes — but you choose when to send them. From the Scoring Configuration page, click View Contestant Scoresheets and then Send. One click delivers every contestant her individual scoresheet by email. Bombyhead does not auto-send — the timing is your call.

For a fuller pageant-night runbook, watch for the upcoming Pageant Night Guide — coming after we hear from a few directors how their first ones went.

Releasing scores after each competition.

Some directors don't want to wait until the morning after. They want contestants to receive their Beauty scores right after Beauty, their Interview scores right after Interview — while the cumulative standings stay hidden until crowning. Bombyhead supports this, and the design makes it safe:

• Scoresheets never reveal standings. A contestant's sheet shows her own scores for each competition, plus the division's minimum, maximum, and average — enough to know how she's doing, never enough to compute anyone's placement. The running totals and rankings live only on the Tabulator's screen until you announce them.
• Sheets only include competitions that have scores. Send right after Beauty and the sheet contains Beauty. Send again after Fun Fashion and each contestant gets an updated sheet with both. Unscored competitions are left off automatically.
• The rhythm, each round: when a competition finishes, open Tally, Close that competition, then View Contestant Scoresheets → Send. Three clicks between rounds.
• Close before you send — this is the important one. Closing a competition locks its scores so a judge can't change a number a contestant is already holding in her inbox. Tally will warn you if it's still open. Reopening a closed competition is always recorded in the audit trail.
• Watch the missing-scores warning. If a judge hasn't finished scoring a round, Tally tells you exactly who's missing before you send — a sheet sent too early simply omits that competition, which reads to a parent like an error. Wait for the warning to clear.

Judging Photogenic.

Photogenic is judged from the photos contestants uploaded when they registered. There is nothing to download, print, or pass around the judges' table — the photos appear on each judge's screen, one card per photo, with a score box beside each one. Three things make that happen:

• 1. Collect the photos at registration. In Manage Contest, Photogenic is a Paid optional category with a photo upload. Every contestant who enters it uploads her photo right there. A contestant who decides later can add it herself: she signs in, opens her dashboard, clicks Edit Registration next to your pageant, checks Photogenic, uploads the photo, and pays just the Photogenic fee — her entry fee is already on file and isn't charged again. That works until your Edit Deadline (set next to the Registration Deadline in your contest settings), so move that date out if the show is close.
• 2. Link the competition to the category. On the Scoring Configuration page, add an area named Photogenic and set Optional to Photo. A second dropdown appears — pick the registration category the photos were collected in. No weight is needed; a photo competition never counts toward the overall ranking. The readiness banner at the top of the page turns green when the link is in place, and yellow with a one-click Link button when it isn't.
• 3. Judges score on screen. When a judge signs in, Photogenic shows as its own button for each division — Score Miss Photogenic, Score Teen Photogenic. Tapping it opens every entered contestant's photo with her name, contestant number, and a score box. The judge types a score on the same range as every other area and it saves instantly. Judges can do this before the show starts, during a break, or whenever you tell them to.

How it tallies. Each photo's score is the average of the judges who scored it. On the Tabulator's screen, View Photogenic Results for a division lists the photos highest to lowest with places assigned — green when every judge has scored it, red when one hasn't. The overall placements are untouched.

If your scoring needs don't fit.

Bombyhead's free scoring is intentionally simple. The whole model fits in two tables (Chapters 04 and 05). Sub-criteria, weighted criteria, prelims-and-finals, drop-the-high/drop-the-low, automated tie-breakers — those are not on the roadmap. Keeping the system small is what makes it free, fast, and reliable.

If your show needs more than the free Bombyhead scoring can do, our sister product is PageantScore.com. PageantScore is a separate judging platform with its own capabilities — different model, different feature set. Some of the items in Chapter 05 are things it handles; some aren't. We can't promise it covers every gap, so review what it actually does and decide whether it fits your scoring rules. It's also worth comparing against other judging platforms before committing.

What to do, depending on your situation:

• Your needs fit Chapter 04's "supports" table. Use Bombyhead's free scoring. Set it up this week and run the test from Chapter 07.
• You need anything from Chapter 05's "doesn't support" table. Review PageantScore.com and other judging platforms to find one that handles the specific rules your show requires. Bombyhead handles registration, payments, and People's Choice voting cleanly regardless of which judging platform you ultimately pick.
• You're not sure which one fits. Email support@bombyhead.com with a description of your scoring rules. We'll tell you honestly whether the free Bombyhead scoring will work for your show. We won't oversell PageantScore — we own both products, but we'd rather you land on the system that genuinely fits than the one we own.