Ratings Roundup: Italian Original Tops Ratings in Song-Happy Europe

PREMIUM: With singing competitions a staple of schedules on channels around the world, the granddaddy of them is still going strong as a massive ratings winner.

The San Remo Song Festival, which has been aired by Italian public broadcaster RAI since 1955, on Saturday night (February 16) drew 12.997 million viewers for the finale on RAI 1, by far the biggest audience so far this year in Italy. Indeed, it may turn out to be the biggest audience of the year. The final night averaged a share of 53.80 percent. The five-night average for the festival was 11.936 million viewers and a share of 47.26 percent.

However, the audience for the festival (which inspired the Eurovision Song Contest) was down slightly from last year, when the last night of San Remo pulled 13.287 million viewers and a share of 57.43 percent, good enough to rank seventh of the year in 2012. The only programs with bigger audiences were six Italian national team football matches in the Euro 2012 tournament.

Singing competition also topped the audience charts in France on Saturday night, where the local version of John de Mol’s format The Voice of Holland on TF1 drew 8.543 million viewers and a share of 37.6 percent.

In Holland on Friday night a spinoff of the original, Voice Kids, was number one of all programs on Friday night. RTL 4 averaged 2.807 million viewers and a share of 37.8 percent for the show from Talpa Productions, in its second season.

The results for new talent were somewhat less impressive in Germany on Saturday. RTL’s Deutschland sucht den Superstar (Germany Seeks a Superstar) was a distant second in the ratings (excluding news). Based on Simon Fuller’s Idols format, the competition has been on the air for 10 years. On Saturday night, DDSS (as it’s popularly known) averaged 3.80 million viewers and a share of 11.9 percent. It was beaten by ARD 1’s family game show Klein gegen Groß – das unglaubliche Duell (Small to Large – The Incredible Duel) in head-to-head competition. The ARD show (launched in 2011) averaged 5.71 million and a share of 18.8 percent.

Italian television’s appetite for singing competition formats has not been spoiled by the success of the home-grown Song Festival. RAI carries a local version of The Voice format too. The new season starts next month on RAI 2. A new season of La Voz is also coming up on Telecinco in Spain. In 2012, the program’s 12 episodes averaged over five million viewers—easily the best performance of any light-entertainment offering.