TV Audience

The 74th edition of Sanremo Music Festival, the most important Italian TV events just ended after 5 days and 5 nights of news. (Sanremo, February 6-10, 2024). For us, it's like the Superbowl in the US with record audiences, the gran finale on Saturday February 10 recorded 14.3 mln viewers with an audience share of 74.1%, but the attention this time was focused on the the segment with John Travolta, defined by the same co-host Fiorello as "The most catastrophic performance in the history of television." See the article published by Dom Serafini on his daily news Videoage Travola Trampled by the Chicken Dance: "So far, among the highlights of the program was a performance by John Travolta that included a few steps of the “Chicken Dance” (called the “Duck Dance” in Europe), usually performed at weddings.For his performance, the 69-year old Hollywood star was reportedly compensated only for travel expenses ($200,000) by RAI, but it was pointed out that he was paid $1 million by Italian shoe manufacturer U-Power, which supplied the sneakers that Travolta wore on the RAI show.
Aside from this setback, the festival was excellently presented by Amadeus in his role as host and artistic director, along with his co-hosts, including the very talented Fiorello. For the first time, the festival captured the attention of a younger audience, with an audience share of 85.2% in the 15-24 target group. It featured young singers to appeal to Rai 1's traditionally home of an older audience: for instance, the young singer Geolier, who became a hit with his Neapolitan song and despite receiving 60% of the televoting, he didn't make it to the podium, overshadowed by the very talented Angelina Mango who clinched the victory. Finally, a female winner after 10 years!