Grammy viewing figures fail to hit the high notes

BTS performs "Butter" at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas.
BTS performs "Butter" at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, April 3, 2022, in Las Vegas. Copyright AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
By Euronews with AP
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Sunday's Grammy Award ceremony was one of the biggest nights of the year for music, but viewers are tuning out of the television broadcast.

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Sunday night's Grammy Awards ceremony was one of the biggest nights of the year for the music industry in America, bringing out stars from across a vast spectrum of musical styles.

But despite a night of feel-good vibes and performances by the industry's top acts, the Grammy Awards barely moved the needle as a television attraction in the USA.

The show reached just under 9.6 million viewers on Sunday, the Nielsen company said. That's just a 4% increase over 2021's broadcast, a more intimate affair because of the pandemic, and the smallest-ever audience for the Grammys by a wide margin.

Any year-to-year viewership increase is usually a cause for celebration in today's television world. But that has to be considered a disappointing showing when you consider the previous week's Academy Awards increased its audience by 58% over 2021.

Jon Batiste was the biggest winner at the Grammys on CBS, which featured performances by Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, BTS, Chris Stapleton, Justin Bieber and others.

“Don't even think of it as an awards show,” host Trevor Noah said at one point. “Think of it as a concert where we're giving out awards.”

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