Grammy Awards Ratings Slip to New Demo Low
By Joe Otterson
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The 2020 Grammy Awards fell off enough to hit a new key demo low in the Nielsen ratings.
In the time zone adjusted fast nationals, the Sunday awards telecast on CBS drew a 5.4 rating in adults 18-49 and 18.7 million viewers. That is down a scant 3% in the key demo and 6% in total viewers compared to last year’s telecast, which drew a 5.6 rating and 19.9 million viewers. However, this year’s telecast is now the lowest-rated in Grammys history. The least-watched was in 2006, with 17 million viewers.
Nevertheless, the Grammys were by far the highest-rated and most-watched telecast on all of television Sunday night.
Billie Eilish proved to be the big winner on Sunday night, with the young music star sweeping the four top categories — song of the year, album of the year, record of the year, and best new artist. She also won the award for best pop solo album while her brother, Finneas O’Connell, was named producer of the year and won the Grammy for best engineered album, non-classical.
Other winners for the night included Tyler the Creator, who won best rap album, and Lizzo, who won three Grammys out of her eight nominations, including best pop solo performance. Lizzo also opened the show and dedicated her performance to Kobe Bryant, who died Sunday morning in a helicopter crash.
There were many tributes to Bryant throughout the night, with host Alicia Keys opening with a performance alongside Boyz II Men dedicated to the basketball legend. Others displayed a Bryant jersey during their performances, including Lil Nas X and Aeorsmith and Run DMC.
There was virtually no reference made to the ouster of Recording Academy boss Deborah Dugan during Sunday’s ceremony. Dugan has since claimed that corruption exists within the Academy and also claims that she was the victim of sexual harassment during her time there.
Elsewhere on a rerun heavy night, ABC aired a news special on Bryant’s death which scored a 0.5 rating among adults 18-49 and drew around 2.5 million total viewers.
On NBC, “American Ninja Warrior: USA vs. the World” delivered a 0.4 rating and 2.2 million total viewers.
Meanwhile on the CW, “Batwoman” and “Supergirl” were both even week-to-week at a 0.2. Both DC shows also grew fractionally in total viewership, drawing 870,000 and 970,000 pairs of eyeballs respectively.
