The recent Grammy awards had a lot in common with other recent Hollywood and entertainment industry awards shows – plenty of political commentary and Trump hating was on display. Sadly for the music industry and show runners, the Grammys followed other trends as well, mainly plummeting ratings and lower than every viewership in the most coveted demographics.
The Grammys aired last Sunday, and the drop in the ratings was swift and brutal – the show had the lowest viewership in over a decade, according to Nielsen ratings. Even worse than the plunge in viewership overall is the dramatic reduction in viewers in the most coveted demographic; 18 to 49 year olds. This group had an all time low interest in the awards show and turned out in lower numbers than ever before.
Total viewership for the Grammy awards was 18.7 million – the lowest turnout in 12 years, and slightly above the lowest turnout of all time. Only 2006 saw lower viewership numbers for the Grammys, with only 17 million viewers tuning in.
Viewers frustrated with rhetoric against the president and political ranting turned away from the awards, following the trend already set this season for other award programs.
The Hollywood Reporter, true to its leftist roots, tried to spin the news as well as it could:
“Sunday’s Grammys broadcast delivered the show’s smallest audience since 2008 (17.18 million viewers) and its lowest 18-49 rating ever. The all-time low in viewers came in 2006, when 17 million people tuned in. Despite the declines, the Grammy broadcast is the most-watched entertainment program of the 2019-20 season so far and the highest-rated among adults 18-49, beating the Globes in both instances (18.33 million, 4.7).”
In 2017 26 million viewers turned in – just two years later, the number has dramatically fallen. In 2012, over 40 million viewers watched, so the Grammys have not been declining overall or over time. They simply fell dramatically in the past two years, coincidentally aligned with the entertainment industry’s need to pontificate about politics and the president.
While the plunge in ratings is bad enough, the drop in young viewers is catastrophic for the Grammys and other self-congratulatory shows like it. Replacing gratitude and joyous thanks with political rants and lectures has taken its toll on the Grammys and shows like it, and Americans are no longer listening. The truth is, most of us, even those youthful voters who hate the president, can’t stand to sit though a lengthy political lecture.
If the trend continues, there won’t be enough of an audience left to make airing these shows, so unless producers and entertainers decide to focus once again on entertaining, the big awards spectacles could become a thing of the past.
