Eurovision pulls in over 8 million viewers for BBC One

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 23 May 2021

Coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest peaks with more than 8 million viewers for BBC One.

The final of the Eurovision Song Contest drew huge ratings for BBC One last night, early figures show.

The music competition - held in Rotterdam after the Netherlands' triumph in 2019 - saw rock band Maneskin from Italy beat off tough competition from France, Switzerland and Iceland to win the trophy, while the United Kingdom controversially received 0 points from the juries and 0 points from the viewers.

BBC One's coverage, voiced as usual by Graham Norton, drew a huge average of 7.46m (48.5%) between 8pm and 11.55pm, up from 7m in 2019 and 6.9m in 2018.

The audience peaked with 8.55m (50.1%) at 9.59pm when the last act - Senhit of San Marino, featuring special guest Flo Rida - was performing.

Viewing figures then spiked again at 11.47pm when Maneskin were named the winners, with 8.27m watching - a huge 70.4% share of the available audience.

Ratings figures do not account for people who watched the show in pubs, bars or other non-household settings.

Media Mole's audience data is supplied by overnights.tv

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