TV Ratings: American Music Awards Dip 4% to New Low

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The American Music Awards on ABC hit a new all-time low in the Nielsen ratings on Sunday night.

The show scored a 1.75 rating among adults 18-49, down 4% on last year’s 1.82. However, the AMAs did gain a fraction in total viewers, coming in with 6.7 million to 2018’s 6.5 million. For comparison, the 2017 broadcast drew a 2.4 rating and 9.2 million viewers. The AMAs returned to Sunday night this year after being moved last time around for the first time in more than a decade.

Last night’s awards prominently featured Taylor Swift, who picked up her artist of the decade award and performed a medley of her greatest hits from the last ten years. The AMAs “America’s Funniest Home Videos” lead-in was even on last week at a 0.8 rating and 5.2 million total viewers.

NBC comfortably won the night overall thanks to “Sunday Night Football,” while Fox placed second largely due to an NFL overrun. The “SNF” game between the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers averaged 15 million total viewers across its broadcast on NBC. As ever that number is significant to adjustment later in the day given the nature of live sports.

On Fox, the NFL overrun boosted “The Simpsons” to a 1.8 rating and 5.4 million total viewers. “Bless the Harts” scored a 1.0, “Bob’s Burgers” a 0.9, and “Family Guy” rounded off the network’s Animation Domination lineup with a 0.9.

Over on CBS, “60 Minutes” led the night with a 0.7, followed by “God Friended Me” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” both at a 0.6. “Madam Secretary” was even at a 0.4.

The CW aired reruns of “Batwoman” and “Supergirl,” both of which scored a 0.1 rating.