Grammys viewership drops

The 62nd Grammy Awards turned into a tribute to late Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant, but that wasn’t enough to keep the audience from slipping 6 per cent compared with last year. The Sunday telecast on CBS scored 18.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen data. It was the smallest audience for the annual ceremony celebrating the music industry since 2008. The drop comes a year after CBS saw an uptick in the audience for the annual trophy show. Last year the program averaged 19.9 million viewers, a slight rise over 2018, which saw a 24 per cent drop and a nine-year audience low.

The Grammy Awards ratings performance fluctuates based on the broad appeal of the artists nominated. This year’s big winner was Billie Eilish, an 18year-old newcomer who scored a historic sweep of the four major Grammy categories. The Grammy Awards have been struggling to hold on with younger viewers as it has declined in the 18-to-49 age group that advertisers seek. This year, it hit an all-time-low rating of 5.4, down from a 5.6 rating in 2019. The 18-to-49 demographic has been declining for all of television as viewers under age 50 increasingly turn to streaming services for video entertainment. CBS offers the Grammy Awards to subscribers of its streaming service CBS All Access. CBS does not release audience data on the service but said it did see a significant increase in the number of signups on the day of the telecast.