Hungary has qualified for the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest for the eighth year in a row this year, with AWS and their entry “Viszlát nyár”. However, less people tuned in to watch them perform in this year’s Eurovision Final, than the amount of people who tuned in to watch the first heat of A Dal 2018.
The viewing figures of Eurovision in Hungary tend to vary depending on the popularity of the artist and the song representing the country. The most watched Eurovision Final was back in 2013 when ByeAlex represented Hungary, and it was the only time that more than 1 million people watched the show. The second closest was the following year, when András Kállay-Saunders sung “Running” in Copenhagen, and finished fifth. His success was seen by just under 918,000 people.
The lowest viewing figures were recorded in 2012 when Compact Disco represented Hungary with “Sound Of Our Hearts”, as the Eurovision Final in Vienna was seen by only 601,000 people, and in 2015 with Boggie and “Wars For Nothing” – 614,000 viewers. This year shows a record low interest for Eurovision, as the Grand Final was only the 11th most watched programme of the week in Hungary, with only 403,599 people watching the show. Just to put it in comparison, last year’s Final was the third most watched show with just under 800,000 viewers. Last year was also the only time ever that the Eurovision Final was seen by more people than the A Dal Final.
This year’s edition of A Dal also showed a very low interest with the viewers, as the Grand Final was seen by 487,000 people (which is by 210,000 people less than the previous year), making the A Dal Final the 16th most watched show of the week.
Here are the viewing figures of the Eurovision finals (vs A Dal finals in brackets) per years:
- 2012: 601,000 (1,015,000)
- 2013: 1,133,000 (1,350,000)
- 2014: 917,752 (1,025,000)
- 2015: 614,000 (772,371)
- 2016: 639,427 (919,549)
- 2017: 798,914 (697,000)
- 2018: 403,599 (487,000)
All viewing figures taken from brandtrend.hu.
Various media in Hungary ran polls and questionnaires about A Dal after this year’s show, and whilst the vast majority was happy with the final outcome having AWS as the winners, most people thought that the juries have way too much power in this show, and that their vote only matters in the last 15 minutes of the show. Is this something the Hungarian broadcaster will think about, and find a way to bring the high interest for the Contest and for Eurovision back?
