Sanremo 2026, ratings down: 58% share and three million fewer viewers
Auditel data on the first evening of the 76th Festival: 9.6 million viewers compared to 12.6 million last year, when the share was 65.3%
by Andrea Biondi and Francesco Prisco
The positioning at the end of February, in order to avoid problems of coexistence with the Olympics in Milan Cortina, and the Inter-Bodo Glimt 'counter-programming' do not bring good results to the 76th edition of the Italian Song Festival. An average of 9 million 600 thousand viewers, or 58% share, watched on Rai1 in terms of total audience, the first evening of Sanremo 2026 directed by Carlo Conti. Last year, the first evening of the Festival had gathered an average of 12 million 630 thousand viewers or 65.3%. Three million viewers on the average of the first night are therefore missing from the appeal.
Worse even than the last two editions of Amadeus, if we consider that the first evening of Sanremo 2024 had 10.5 million viewers and 65.5% share, while the 2023 Festival was seen by 10.7 million people for 63.2% share.
Of course, one must always consider that this is an 'event' that gathered 9.6 million people in front of TV and small screens (PCs, tablets, smartphones). But the comparison with last year's prime time is merciless, with a -24% drop that makes the forecast of a 3% drop in ratings made by Rai Pubblicità in its campaign pale.
According to Studio Frasi's elaborations on Auditel data, considering the standard audience, without small screen (and without considering the share that has changed in 2022), this is the fourth worst result since 1987 with 9.3 million viewers on average. Worse was only the first evenings of 2008 (7 million), 2021 (8.3 million), 2003 (9.12 million) and 2006 (9.75 million).
According to the general director of Auditel Paolo Lugiato, who spoke at the press conference, "the general television audience has dropped by more than two and a half million viewers, compared to the first evening of the Sanremo Festival in 2025. Last year, on 11 February, there were 18 million 700 thousand viewers in front of the television, last night there were 16 million 100 thousand, so 2.6 million less. The average audience figure for the festival, 9.6 million viewers, is divided between 9.3 million people who followed the festival on TV and 300 thousand on the so-called 'small screens'. The average share was 57.7% for TV, 70.1% on the small screens. The Primafestival (from 8.31 p.m. to 8.39 p.m.) had 8 million 100 thousand viewers, equal to a 36.3% share; Sanremo Start (from 8.40 p.m. to 9.37 p.m.) 13 million 100 thousand with a 51.1% share, and the Dopofestival (from 1.32 a.m. to 1.59 a.m.) 2 million 200 thousand with a 52.8% share. Legitimate streams (i.e. clip views) totalled 1 million 111 thousand. The total digital time spent was 2 million 424 thousand minutes (over 40 thousand hours)'.
