The Grammy Awards ratings have been in slow decline for more than a generation, but from year to year they’re all over the map, presumably driven by the top award winners for that year. I wouldn’t know, since as far as I’m concerned all the music the world ever needed was recorded between 1964 and 1968, in Detroit. (Although, even I knew that 1984 was the year of Thriller.) The 2009 Grammy Awards air at 8pm Eastern time Sunday on CBS.
Grammy Awards TV Ratings Data, 1974-2008:
| Year | Net | HH Rating | Share | Homes (million) | Viewers (million) | $/30 Sec Spot |
| 2008 | CBS | 10.3 | 16 | 11.566 | 17.182 | $572,700 |
| 2007 | CBS | 12.1 | 19 | 13.521 | 20.058 | $557,300 |
| 2006 | CBS | 10.9 | 17 | 12.056 | 17.005 | $675,900 |
| 2005 | CBS | 11.6 | 18 | 12.705 | 18.802 | $703,900 |
| 2004 | CBS | 15.7 | 24 | 17.008 | 26.293 | $654,600 |
| 2003 | CBS | 14.7 | 23 | 15.658 | 24.829 | $610,300 |
| 2002 | CBS | 11.9 | 19 | 12.524 | 18.968 | $573,900 |
| 2001 | CBS | 16.7 | 26 | 17.098 | 26.651 | $574,000 |
| 2000 | CBS | 17.3 | 27 | 17.457 | 27.798 | $505,500 |
| 1999 | CBS | 16.6 | 26 | 16.472 | 24.880 | $472,000 |
| 1998 | CBS | 17.0 | 27 | 16.622 | 25.043 | $315,600 |
| 1997 | CBS | 13.4 | 22 | 12.970 | 19.211 | $346,300 |
| 1996 | CBS | 14.6 | 23 | 13.994 | 21.503 | $304,800 |
| 1995 | CBS | 11.8 | 19 | 11.257 | 17.279 | $399,100 |
| 1994 | CBS | 16.1 | 24 | 15.166 | 23.696 | $407,700 |
| 1993 | CBS | 19.9 | 31 | 18.527 | 29.874 | $401,500 |
| 1992 | CBS | 16.2 | 27 | 14.920 | 23.102 | $352,900 |
| 1991 | CBS | 18.8 | 31 | 17.500 | 28.893 | $319,200 |
| 1990 | CBS | 18.9 | 31 | 17.410 | 28.831 | $330,600 |
| 1989 | CBS | 16.0 | 26 | 14.460 | 23.570 | $318,300 |
| 1988 | CBS | 21.1 | 33 | 18.690 | 32.764 | $299,900 |
| 1987 | CBS | 18.3 | 27 | 15.990 | 27.919 | $264,200 |
| 1986 | CBS | 20.3 | 32 | 17.440 | 30.398 | $205,500 |
| 1985 | CBS | 23.8 | 35 | 20.210 | 37.126 | |
| 1984 | CBS | 30.8 | 45 | 25.810 | 51.672 | |
| 1983 | CBS | 21.6 | 33 | 17.990 | 29.863 | |
| 1982 | CBS | 18.1 | 29 | 14.750 | 24.028 | |
| 1981 | CBS | 21.2 | 34 | 16.490 | 28.577 | |
| 1980 | CBS | 23.9 | 39 | 18.240 | 32.394 | |
| 1979 | CBS | 21.9 | 34 | 16.320 | 31.318 | |
| 1978 | CBS | 26.6 | 44 | 19.390 | ||
| 1977 | CBS | 21.3 | 38 | 15.170 | 28.869 | |
| 1976 | CBS | 23.8 | 47 | 16.560 | ||
| 1975 | CBS | 16.4 | 30 | 11.230 | ||
| 1974 | CBS | 30.3 | 52 | 20.060 |
*2006-2008 results are Live+SD, all previous years are Live viewing.
Nielsen Ratings Data: ©2009 Nielsen Media Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
American Idol will outdraw the grammys which I find odd.
Anyways, the grammys seem to award what’s popular as oppose to what’s good.
2006 was the worst year ever because CBS decided to air them on a Wednesday while their competition aired:
NBC: Winter Olympics
ABC: Dancing With The Stars
FOX: American Idol
& obviously CBS and the Grammys bombed.
Bill, do you have the ratings for what those programs I listed all got in 2006 on that night against the Grammys?
I would appreciate it very much, thank you!
juno, for 2/8/06, your memory was a bit off, Olympics started on Friday that week, and my data shows no Dancing W/ Stars on Wednesday.
‘02 and ‘06 were both the years U2 was nominated for a ton of awards….although “Beautiful Day” and “Vertigo” both netted plenty of Grammys in the years beforehand….interesting that both of those years were the recent weaklings considering that U2 is the world’s most popular rock band at the moment. :/
I am one of those dumb people who know very little about Grammy history. What was so special about 84…?
Gojou, it was Michael Jackson’s heyday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Awards_of_1984
Put Britney Spears and the ratings will get high!
Yep the record of 8 awards won that year. Oddly enough he was with Brooke Shields at that time and Emmanuel Lewis. Odd ass hell!
Music doesn’t have any real stand outs right now to increase ratings like Michael did or Eminem did recently back in ‘01.
It’s because they nominate garbage. Kanye? Utter shite.
ABCFanatic, Britney has lost her trainwreck status. I don’t think even she could pull big ratings today.
Robert Seidman – Thank You.
Finally a decent Line up of acts, but because of poor sound mixing which has now become a TV broadcast standard, you were unable to hear most of the vocal perfomances. I quit watching and reviewed the recorded version looking for redeeming moments to no avail. Television no longer knows how to broadcast musical performances with the glaring exception of PBS.