Last night, the First Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest took place, with 10 countries making their way into the Grand Final on Saturday. Now, RAI has revealed that the Italian viewing figures for Eurovision were the highest they have seen in a long time!
More viewers than during the 2021 Grand Final
The contest is hosted in Turin, Italy, which explains the sudden increase in interest from the Italian public. In total, 5,435,000 viewers tuned in to RAI 1 to follow along with the show that took place in their home country.
This means that the show had a share of 26.4%, the highest average viewing figures for the contest in Italy for over 30 years! In 1991, 6,683,000 viewers watched the show, which was hosted in Rome following Italy’s 1990 win. For comparison, less Italians tuned in when Italy’s Måneskin won the contest last year in Rotterdam: an average of 4,512,000 viewers.
Italy had the opportunity to vote in this Semi-Final as well, as did France. It will be interesting to see if the increase in viewing figures has impacted the Italian televote.
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