Eurovision 2024’s semifinal 1 was filled with color and fun. From showing off that non-winners can still make their mark to the return of Petra Mede for a third time, it showcased Eurovision in its quirkiest and greenest form.
And naturally, the first-semifinal share was dominated by countries who competed, most notably in Croatia, which received 60% of its audience, which comes up with 979,147 people. This is a slight increase from 2023, where 941,000 viewers tuned in to see Let 3 compete in Liverpool’s first semi-final; in the final, viewership tripled due to Croatia qualifying. The hype surrounding Baby Lasagna and “Rim Tim Tagi Tim” is enough to see increasing audience share, especially as he goes on to compete in the final with the hopes of the country.
Despite seeing a drop of half a million viewers from 2023, Finnish viewership for the first semi-final remained strong, at 66% market share. This translated to a rating of 13% overall, which is still high for a country who began Eurovision on a slow note, but have now qualified for the fourth straight year in a row–a feat only saw once before between 2006 and 2009.
Another country with a persistent qualification streak after years of underachieving is Portugal, who managed to achieve their longest streak in the semi-final era when iolanda’s “Grito” entered the final with her moving performance. Like with Finland, the ratings dropped from an average of 878,000 to 660,700 this year.
On the other hand, non-qualifications could slow down momentum, even with the most enthusiastic countries. With “Scared of Heights”, Iceland stayed in the semi-finals for the second year in a row, and the ratings reflected it with only 56% of the audience watching the show. At the same time, the RUV wavered on whether to participate in Eurovision 2024, and the lower ratings could be reflective of the public mood.
While Sweden hosted the contest, the number of people watching dropped by 600,000, which still allowed for a 56.85% rating. The previous hosts, the United Kingdom, saw first semi-final viewership drop by over a million, despite having Olly Alexander perform his synthpop confection “Dizzy” featuring boxers in an intergalactic locker room.
Across the Øresund Bridge, Danish viewership reached 361,019 despite being a non-participating country–could it be because the show was so close to their homeland and wanted a piece of the action? Nevertheless, it was a slight decline from 2023, when 380,000 viewers watched the first semi-final.