60th Grammy Ratings Plummet As Politics Dominate Music’s Biggest Night In The Ratings Game, And Here's Why

Credit: Adrienne Gibbs,  CONTRIBUTOR

In a night with few memorable performances or last-minute upsets, the 2018 Grammy Awards saw its television audience shrink by more than 20% as the industry’s biggest stars took turns jabbing President Trump and lecturing viewers on immigration, DACA, and more.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the 2018 Grammys recorded the lowest ratings in several years. This year’s CBS broadcast brought in 19.8 million viewers, according to network officials. That’s down around 24% as compared to the 2017 Grammy Awards, which nabbed 26.1 million viewers.

There are lots of reasons for this. Perhaps the length of the broadcast is an issue for people who have school and work on Monday mornings. Or perhaps viewers were simply not interested in the hodgepodge mashups of the evening. Of course, Kendrick Lamar’s opening performance grabbed everyone’s attention, but gauging from the live tweets of the event – and gauging from the live tweets simultaneously from other TV shows – it seemed a number of would-be viewers in that key 18-49 demographic only tuned in at specific moments.

Maybe, despite performances from Sir Elton John and Miley Cyrus and Sting and Lamar and Luis Fonsi and Sza and U2, maybe people were just bored. I know I was.

I found myself asking folks on Twitter and Facebook if they felt bored too if they felt the broadcast was too long and if they enjoyed some of the longish skits. I also asked my followers to play a game called: What would I edit out of the Grammys if I had the power to do so? Some people chimed back and said that if they were editors, they would have cut or trimmed the "Carpool Karaoke" skit on the New York subway with Shaggy, Sting and James Corden. Others said they would have skipped Sting entirely and went with a Lorde performance. Still, others said they only chimed in to look at Blue Ivy, the perfectly packaged progeny of Beyonce and 8-time Grammy nominated Jay-Z, who did not take home a single statue this year for his landmark 4:44.

In addition, the three and a half hour awards show is averaged a 5.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 19.8 million viewers, according to time zone adjusted numbers. Last year’s show drew a 7.8 and 26.1 million, meaning the 2018 Grammys are down approximately 24 percent in both measures.

The show in Nielsen’s overnight metered markets averaged 12.7 household rating and 21 share in the 56 overnight metered markets, which cover about 70% of U.S. TV households. That’s down from a 16 household rating for the 2017 telecast.

Despite the drop, the Grammy telecast that handed big wins to hitmaker Bruno Mars still gathered a big crowd that will rank among TV’s most-watched events of the year.



There were numerous bright spots in the broadcast, but they were dotted with slow and moody moments. Bruno Mars rocked the house with Cardi B as the duo performed the 90s-tinged "Finesse." Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee had America humping and bumping with "Despacito." And Rihanna and DJ Khalid turned the heat up with their performance of "Wild Thoughts.” The poignant rendition of “Praying” by Kesha was a top moment that referenced the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Those were definitely great Grammys moments. But when Patti LuPone gave her dramatically beautiful rendition of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” – according to the producers, it was an ode to returning the Grammys to New York – social media took it one of two ways. Either they loved it and cried with her or they were snarky and wondered why the Tony Awards invaded the Grammys.

Music is music but ouch.

Awards shows have a tough time keeping viewers during their entire two- to three- to four-hour timeslot. And the Grammys haven’t dropped this low in viewers since 2009 when some 19 million viewers watched.

Maybe if Jay-Z had nabbed even one award, or if "Despacito" had not been snubbed or if Sza had more air time, things might be different. Perhaps country needed more time on air. Maybe people are tired of seeing U2 perform.

That said, even 19 million viewers is a helluva lot of people. But a drop in viewership is concerning for any enterprise that makes money off advertising to that key 18-49 year old demographic. If the tweets and Facebook posts were any indication, it seems that people knew they were going to tune in to certain acts and were waiting for the rest of us dedicated viewers to tweet or post to Facebook at the appropriate time so that they would know when to chime in and when to leave and go finish washing their dishes.

Still, the Grammys lost around six million viewers from last year to this year. In the words of Marvin Gaye, who was expertly channeled in the Grammys telecast: what’s going on?

Credit: Adrienne Gibbs , CONTRIBUTOR

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