The award programs are about life support devices.
Audience at Sunday’s 63rd annual Grammy Awards fell 53 percent from last year, to 8.8 million viewers, CBS said on Monday. The record-breaking display comes in the wake of the discouraging 60 percent drop in Golden Globes to 6.9 million viewers.
While this year’s cataclysmic declines are due, at least in part, to the pandemic, television executives and industry experts said they also reflect an acceleration in the long ratings drops that plague award programs specifically and linear television in general.
While most observers expect a larger audience for future awards ceremonies, many question whether the programs will ever be able to retain pre-pandemic numbers.
The drop in assessments can also be attributed, in a way, to the quality of the programs themselves. On average, more than 10 million people watch “The Masked Singer”, a Fox program where smaller celebrities are hiding behind masks. The Grammy, which features big celebrities that can be seen, now attracts a smaller audience.
The abysmal numbers set off alarms for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which awards Oscars) and ABC, which will host this year’s event on April 25. This show will face the added challenge of celebrating the film in a year when the vast majority of production was stopped and most cinemas were closed.
The previous Grammy ceremony, which took place in January 2020, drew 18.7 million viewers. That dropped from 19.9 million the previous year and from an all-time record of 39.9 million in 2012. (Before Sunday’s show, the lowest turnout was 17 million in 2006).
The 8.8 million who attended this year’s Grammy included viewers who watched the linear broadcast, as well as those who broadcast it live via CBS.com, the CBS app or Paramount +, the company’s new streaming app.
