TV Ratings: The Grammys Show Slight Uptick From a Year Ago

Despite a night of feel-good vibes and performances by the music industry’s top acts, the Grammy Awards barely moved the needle as a television attraction, reports The Associated Press citing Nielsen data.

The show reached just under 9.6 million viewers on Sunday, the Nielsen said. That’s 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.

On the sports front, the much-awaited NCAA Final Four contest between Duke and North Carolina reached a total of 16.25 million people Saturday night over several Turner cable networks, Nielsen said.

Sunday’s NCAA championship game in women’s basketball, won by South Carolina over Connecticut, was seen by 4.47 million people on ESPN.

CBS won the week in prime time, averaging 5.3 million viewers. ABC had 3.2 million, NBC had 2.4 million, Fox had 2.1 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 920,000.

📺TOP 20 PRIME-TIMESHOWS (TOTAL VIEWERS):

1. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: Duke vs. North Carolina, TBS, 9.87 million.

2. “Grammy Awards” (8 to 10:53 p.m. Eastern), CBS, 9.59 million.

3. “Grammy Awards” (10:54 to 11:30 p.m.), CBS, 8.76 million.

4. “FBI,” CBS, 7.58 million.

5. “NCAA Pregame Show,” TBS, 7.24 million.

6. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.93 million.

7. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.83 million.

8. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 6.48 million.

9. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: Duke vs. North Carolina, Turner, 6.38 million.

10. “Ghosts,” CBS, 6.23 million.

11. “FBI: International,” CBS, 6.22 million.

12. “NCIS: Hawai’i,” CBS, 6.13 million.

13. “FBI: Most Wanted,” CBS, 5.84 million.

14. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.68 million

15. “American Idol” (Monday), ABC, 5.66 million.

16. “Survivor,” CBS, 5.63 million.

17. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 5.42 million.

18. “Bob Hearts Abishola,” CBS, 5.13 million.

19. “United States of Al,” CBS, 5.02 million.

20. “911,” Fox, 4.97 million.

📺THE EVENING NEWS:

ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.4 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had 7 million viewers and the “CBS Evening News” had 5 million.

TV Newser reports ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 174 of the past 175 weeks in average total viewers—and 103 of the last 105 weeks among adults 25-54.

For the second consecutive week, World News Tonight gained viewers from the previous week, up +1% in total viewers and +2% in adults 25-54 from the week of March 21, 2022. Compared with the same week in 2021 (March 29), the Muir-led newscast improved +3% in average total audience but shed -2% among adults 25-54.

📺LATE NIGHT TV:

Fox’s 11 p.m. late-night comedy show Gutfeld!, which is marking its one year anniversary today, saw its most-watched week since launch with 2.16 million viewers and 365,000 adults 25-54. The program grew +81% in total viewers and +55% in the younger A25-54 demo versus the 2021 average of Fox’s 11 p.m. hour.

📺CABLE TV:

Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network in prime time, averaging 2.5 million viewers. TBS had 1.99 million, ESPN had 1.67 million, TNT had 1.47 million and HGTV had 1.1 million.

 According to TV Newser citing Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, Fox News averaged 2.53 million total viewers in primetime this past week. In addition to being No. 1 overall, that number is +1% from the previous week. FNC averaged 380,000 adults 25-54 in primetime, which is -9% from the week prior and behind the cable networks carrying Men’s and Women’s NCAA March Madness (TBS, TNT and ESPN).

Fox News averaged 1.65 million total viewers in total day during the week of March 28. While No. 1 overall, that number is -2% from what the network averaged the prior week. FNC also averaged 271,000 adults 25-54 in total day, No. 1 on cable, but a -6% drop from the prior week.

MSNBC fell to No. 5 in average total primetime viewers (1.13 million) this past week, finishing behind Fox News and the networks carrying the men’s and women’s tournaments on cable. As TV news’ focus on Ukraine slowly begins to subside, CNN, which has benefited more from its coverage of the war in Ukraine any other network, is beginning to see its viewership return to early Q1 levels.

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN (w/permission)

On the cable news programming front, Fox News’ The Five remained the most-watched show on cable news this past week, averaging 3.57 million total viewers at 5 p.m. Tucker Carlson Tonight took second place in total viewers, averaging 3.52 million, with Hannity (3.04 million), Jesse Watters Primetime (2.94 million) and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.67 million) rounding out the top five in average total viewers.