The 67th Annual Grammy Awards was the most effective iterations of music’s greatest evening in years, and it raised tens of millions for Los Angeles wildfire restoration efforts as well. Regardless of the optimistic reception, it appears the years of Grammy scores progress have hit the brakes, leaving the remainder of awards season on an ominous word.
Per Nielsen, Sunday’s Grammy Awards noticed a complete viewers of 15.4 million viewers, a roughly 9% lower from 2024’s 16.9 million. Final 12 months’s Grammys stood out because of a number of dwelling legends gracing the stage and Taylor Swift saying her new album mid-acceptance speech, all of which can have contributed to the present’s highest post-pandemic viewership.
In a refreshing twist, together with established chart-toppers, 2025 gave rising stars the lion’s share of the airtime, which allowed for stellar performances by Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Doechii, amongst others. However regardless of the web buzz these artists generated after the ceremony, that pleasure didn’t translate to larger viewership of the printed itself.
This viewers dip has damaged the Grammys’ two-year streak of scores progress, with final 12 months’s 35% leap placing the present in vary of its pre-pandemic audiences. This slide again down to fifteen.4 million is a roughly 18% lower from its pre-COVID 2020 broadcast, which drew in 18.7 million viewers.
In fact, it ought to be famous that audiences for the Grammys and the remainder of the awards present slate had been already shrinking properly earlier than that. Now that the post-pandemic scores bounce appears to be over and audiences proceed to desert conventional TV, maybe this newest drop for the Grammys is just selecting up the place issues left off.
Taking a look at different latest awards broadcasts reveals a combined bag, at finest, for the rest of awards season, a far cry from the robust showings that outlined 2024.
EMMY AWARDS
Whilst all awards reveals have struggled to usher in viewers lately, the Emmys have had a very tough go: Whereas it was one of many solely ceremonies whose scores didn’t tank in 2021, it logged two consecutive all-time lows after that.
Final 12 months’s January ceremony, which was delayed from fall 2023 because of the Hollywood strikes and shared a time slot with an NFL sport and a presidential major debate, had a very unhealthy hand that culminated within the present falling beneath 5 million complete viewers for the primary time.
Fortunately, that 12 months’s second Emmys broadcast, in September — the ultimate ceremony of the 2023-24 awards season — noticed a strong 6.9 million complete viewers (up 55% from the early 2024 ceremony), making for its largest viewers since 2021 (7.8 million) and simply shy of 2019’s remaining tally (7 million). Its 18-49 viewers additionally earned a 1.03 ranking, which is eighteen% larger than final 12 months’s 0.9 however nonetheless the second-lowest 18-49 ranking since 2016.
Like different awards reveals, Emmys nonetheless have fairly a climb to succeed in pre-pandemic viewership, however the newest ceremony has no less than formally ended its multiyear tailspin.
GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS
The 2024 awards season began with the Golden Globes bouncing again in scores after a shaky return from its controversy-induced hiatus. The printed’s 9.4 million complete viewers had been a 50% improve from 2023 and gave hope for the remainder of the awards reveals that possibly the tide would elevate all ships.
Nearly all awards broadcasts final 12 months certainly noticed wholesome scores boosts (possibly this would be the Tonys’ 12 months), nevertheless it appears the Golden Globes might have already discovered its ceiling. Regardless of the 2025 broadcast (the primary produced by Dick Clark Productions, owned by Selection mum or dad firm PMC) getting optimistic important and viewers responses, complete viewership dipped about 2% from final 12 months’s tally, to 9.3 million, and the 18-49 ranking broke even at 1.8.
These new figures put “Hollywood’s Get together of the Yr” (trademarked) nonetheless properly beneath its pre-pandemic viewership, which hovered comfortably within the vary of 18-to-20 million, however in all equity, holding regular could be thought-about considerably of a win within the unstable post-pandemic awards present panorama. That 9.3 million complete viewers remains to be round 50% bigger than its 2023 draw, and Globes was the third most watched awards present behind the Grammys and Oscars in 2024.
Nonetheless, if final 12 months’s Globes was the groundhog that signaled a bountiful springtime for the remainder of awards season, this season would possibly see flatter trendlines throughout the board.
We’ll know quickly sufficient if the Academy Awards will see the same scores consequence because the Globes and Grammys or pull off one other enhance just like the Emmys — however the truth that final 12 months’s scores already confirmed indicators of a slowdown isn’t essentially the most encouraging signal.
