NEW YORK (AP) – Grammy producers avoided the inconvenience of zooming in from other pandemic-era awards shows and offered famous music fans performances from industry-leading stars. And the spectators still stayed away.
CBS’s Grammys television broadcast reached 9.2 million TVs on Sunday, the lowest figure recorded and a precipitous drop of 51% over last year, the Nielsen company said.
This followed after the 63% drop in Golden Globes a few weeks ago and recorded a low score for the Emmy Awards last fall.
It is enough for TV executives to worry if this is only related to the pandemic or if they can no longer depend on these traditional attention events. The Oscars, which appear next month on ABC, have often been the most-watched television event of the year after the Super Bowl.
There are several factors, including the decline of broadcast television in general and the fragmentation of entertainment: there are fewer movies, TV shows, and songs that unite society. Social media also allows fans to capture the highlights of an awards ceremony later instead of watching the full act, which lasted nearly four hours during Sunday’s Grammys.
For the Grammys, the drop in scores came despite the general view that this was a well-produced event.
CBS won the week, averaging 4.9 million prime time viewers. NBC had 4 million, ABC had 3.4, Fox had 2.6, Univision had 1.4, Ion Television had 1.2 and Telemundo had 1.
Fox News Channel led the cable networks, with an average of 2.45 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.84 million, CNN 1.29 million, HGTV 1.15 million and ESPN 1.06 million.
ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the night’s news race, with an average of 8.9 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7.3 million and “CBS Evening News” 5.3 million.
For the week of March 8 to 14, the 20 best programs, their networks and viewers:
1. “NCIS,” CBS, 9.78 million.
2. “Grammy Awards,” CBS, 9.23 million.
3. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 8.14 million.
4. “FBI,” CBS, 7.66 million.
5. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 7,571 million.
6. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 7.57 million.
7. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.04 million.
8. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.89 million.
9. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.49 million.
10. “President Biden’s Speech to the Nation,” ABC, 6.34 million.
11. “911,” Fox, 6.28 million.
12. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 6.15 million.
13. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.89 million.
14. “President Biden’s Speech to the Nation,” CBS, 5.83 million.
15. “The Masked Singer,” Fox, 5.66 million.
16. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 5.62 million.
17. “American Idol,” ABC, 5.5 million.
18. “Station 19,” ABC, 5.41 million.
19. “911: Lone Star,” Fox, 5.36 million.
20. “Bob Hearts Abishola,” CBS, 5.21 million.