CBS described it in a
press release as "the second largest audience for the awards broadcast
since 1993." Awards shows in general have been on a ratings upswing in
recent years. One oft-cited reason is that, since they're big live
events, they stand out in an increasingly on-demand television world.
Sunday's telecast would
have been the biggest since 1993, period, were it not for the tragic
circumstances of the 2012 Grammys. That year, Whitney Houston died less
than 24 hours before the awards telecast, causing a dramatic surge in
viewership the next day. (The average viewership was about 40 million.)
The Grammys are typically
the second most popular awards show of the year behind the Academy
Awards. This year's average viewership was just a smidge higher than
last year's average of 28.4 million. (CBS pointed out that a more
apples-to-apples comparison was between this year and 2010, the last
time the Grammys were scheduled in January instead of February to avoid
the Winter Olympics. In 2010, 25.9 million viewers tuned in.)
For CBS, the ratings
increase this year may justify the network's controversial decision to
tape-delay the Grammys in western parts of the United States. Most
awards shows are broadcast live coast-to-coast, something that matters
more than ever nowadays because millions of people like to converse
about the shows on the Internet while they're watching. But CBS
continues to delay the Grammys until prime time begins out West, when it
says more people are at home and able to watch.
CBS' news release on
Monday cited data from Nielsen's SocialGuide service that labeled the
Grammys "the biggest social television event of the 2013-2014 TV season
to date, with Twitter recording more than 15.2 million tweets during the
Eastern and Central time zone broadcast alone." The network did not say
how many tweets there were during the Mountain and Pacific time zone
broadcast.
With regard to the West
Coast tape-delay, Chris Ender, a CBS spokesman, pointed out that the
Grammys is a performance-driven show, and that the social media chatter
during the East Coast broadcast "often drives more awareness and
interest to viewers elsewhere."
"We're continuing to do what works, delivering a broadcast that can be watched by the most amount of viewers," Ender said.
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