CMA Awards Enjoy Healthy Ratings Boost Over 2021
The CMA Awards grew their audience Wednesday, leading ABC to a ratings win Wednesday (Nov. 9).
Co-hosted by Luke Bryan and football star Peyton Manning, the 2022 awards brought in 7.57 million viewers, up from 6.83 million (an all-time low) in 2021 — an 11 percent gain. Wednesday’s telecast, which saw Luke Combs take home entertainer of the year and album of the year honors, was also up over the 2020 show’s 7.08 million viewers. Other big winners at the ceremony included Chris Stapleton (male vocalist of the year) and Carly Pearce and Ashley McBryde (musical event of the year for “Never Wanted to Be That Girl”).
The CMAs slipped a little in the key ad demographic of adults 18-49, scoring a 1.05 rating (equivalent to about 1.37 million viewers in that age group) vs. 1.12 a year ago. The awards haven’t recovered much of their pre-pandemic draw yet — in 2019, ABC’s broadcast averaged more than 11 million viewers and a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demo.
The CMA Awards also appeared to push down the audience for some of its competition on Wednesday. Fox’s The Masked Singer (3.16 million viewers, 0.55 in adults 18-49) and NBC’s Chicago Med (6.03 million, 0.58), Fire (6.19 million, 0.63) and PD (4.74 million, 0.53) all were below their same-day averages for the season so far. CBS’ Survivor (4.73 million, 0.72) and The Amazing Race (2.88 million, 0.39), on the other hand, edged up week to week.
A post-election edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News was the most-watched show on cable Wednesday, drawing 4.43 million viewers.
This story was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
Chris Eggertsen
Billboard
