CMA Awards Ratings Soar

[TheBigA]

Or at least that's what the press release says. In a time when on-air real time ratings are typically down for music events, the CMA Awards are up. What's interesting to me is the way the story is presented, with traditional ratings plus social media activity:

“THE 53RD ANNUAL CMA AWARDS” VIEWERSHIP SOARS
12 PERCENT WITH SOCIAL INTERACTIONS UP 104 PERCENT

NASHVILLE— Featuring its 3-hour telecast of “The 53rd Annual CMA Awards,” ABC dominated Wednesday night, ranking #1 all 6 half-hours of primetime with Total Viewers and Adults 18-49. ABC beat its nearest competition by 4.3 million viewers (11.3 million vs. 7.0 million - NBC) and by 82% in Adults 18-49 (2.0/9 vs. 1.1/5 - Fox).
Hitting new season highs on the night, ABC drew its largest Wednesday audience in 2 years and delivered its highest Adult 18-49 rating on the night in 1 year with entertainment programming – since 11/8/17 and 11/14/18, respectively.

ABC’s CMA Awards stood as Wednesday’s definitive #1 TV program, beating runners-up Fox’s The Masked Singer by 25% among Adults 18-49 (2.0/9 vs. 1.6/8) and NBC’s Chicago Med by 3.9 million Total Viewers (11.3 million vs. 7.4 million. In fact, ABC’s CMA Awards marked the first program this season to outdeliver The Masked Singer to rank as Wednesday’s highest-rated show in Adults 18-49.

This year’s broadcast of the CMA Awards grew over the prior year’s telecast (10.1 million and 2.0/9 on 11/14/18) by 12% in Total Viewers and held steady in Adults 18-49 (coming within 1-tenth of a rating point).

Additionally, the CMA Awards was the #1 most social entertainment program across broadcast and cable last night, with 2.4M total social interactions across Instagram (43%), Facebook (33%), and Twitter (25%), +104% over the 2018 telecast, as measured by Nielsen Social.

For the first time ever, CMA was able to post select full performance views on Facebook and Twitter, with views nearing 6.7 million since last night. In the first 12 hours, VEVO views are up 41% year-over-year. Social reach across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube on Wednesday was up 36.7% year-over-year, from 2.8 billion to 3.9 billion, as measured by Sprinklr.

“The 53rd Annual CMA Awards,” hosted by Carrie Underwood with special guest hosts Reba McEntire and Dolly Parton, celebrated the legacy of women in Country with riveting performances, heartfelt speeches and poignant tributes. Luke Combs and Kacey Musgraves were the night’s big winners, each receiving two wins. Watch full-length performances now on CMA’s YouTube Channel.

https://www.cmaworld.com/the-53rd-a...cent-with-social-interactions-up-104-percent/

 

[genius]

That's quite some spin there.

Variety describes it much better:

"Last night’s awards show garnered a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49, down only a fraction from last year’s 2.1, and was watched by 11.3 million total viewers, up roughly 12% from last year. However, for comparison, the 2017 CMA Awards drew a 3.2 rating and 14.3 million viewers, meaning this year was once again down at the lowest rating the show has ever achieved."

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/tv-ratings-cma-awards-2019-1203404904/

 

[Don CT]

And I never knew it was even on.

 

[TheBigA]

And I never knew it was even on.

Would knowing have made a difference?

They ran promos in all types of shows from The Bachelor to Good Morning America to Jimmy Kimmel to Monday Night Football. Over 100 country radio stations broadcast live from Nashville during the week. Ads on various cable channels and social media. How should they have let you know?

 

[Don CT]

Would knowing have made a difference?

They ran promos in all types of shows from The Bachelor to Good Morning America to Jimmy Kimmel to Monday Night Football. Over 100 country radio stations broadcast live from Nashville during the week. Ads on various cable channels and social media. How should they have let you know?

Unless I watch ABC all the time I might have heard about it. Not that I would have watched anyways. To me there are only 2 award shows worth watching. Well one really, The Academy Awards are the only ones that seem to matter and maybe the Grammy's.

 

[davideduardo]

Unless I watch ABC all the time I might have heard about it. Not that I would have watched anyways. To me there are only 2 award shows worth watching. Well one really, The Academy Awards are the only ones that seem to matter and maybe the Grammy's.

Both of the country music awards shows are good, and well produced as well. The music generally reflects mainstream tastes and the artists are enthusiastic and generally non-political.

The Oscars are un-viewable to me. Movies I did not like generally win most of the awards; Hollywood long ago forgot they are in the entertainment business, not the art business. And movie stars are never going to be my source of political guidance, whether they be Streisand or Eastwood.

The Grammys are similarly off track on many nominations and awards; the presentations are lame. Oddly, though, the Latin Grammys are much closer to the real people's preferences and they are mostly on-target.

Our differences in opinion are yet another example of how TV (and all media) has fragmented... shows with 40 to 50 shares and ratings of 20 and above are practically unknown in the last 20 years.

 

[TheBigA]

"Last night’s awards show garnered a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49, down only a fraction from last year’s 2.1

Seems to me if you're going to focus on "in demo 18-49," it doesn't help when one of the hosts is in her 60s, the other is in her 70s, and the big winner is in his mid-50s, all outside the demo.

Blake Shelton had this thought after the show, and I agree: “I think that might have helped with the ratings if they thought there was actually a chance that people were gonna throw down and fight on the CMAs.”

 

[CTListener]

Seems to me if you're going to focus on "in demo 18-49," it doesn't help when one of the hosts is in her 60s, the other is in her 70s, and the big winner is in his mid-50s, all outside the demo.

All the numbers cited seem to make it clear that the 18-49 demo is gravy at this point for network TV. That 2.0 was still good enough to beat whatever the other networks were showing that that time slot, and, looking at the big picture, that's all that mattered; the advertisers knew that their clients' dollars on ABC were reaching more eyeballs overall and in that demo than the advertisers who went with the other networks' shows were. That more viewers were watching basic cable, pay channels or streaming services is just reality these days and there's really nothing ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox can do to change that. Network TV in general has been hemorrhaging younger viewers for years. Keeping Reba McEntire or Garth Brooks off the CMA's award show or making Keith Urban or Kelsea Ballerini the host of that show isn't going to bring them back in numbers sufficient to compensate for the loss of older viewers.

 

[TheBigA]

All the numbers cited seem to make it clear that the 18-49 demo is gravy at this point for network TV.

I think that's true, and was core to the way their press release was written. The fact that they equated social interaction with traditional viewing shows just how far we've come. The future for these shows will come from distribution of elements in the show over social media. According to the release, it led to almost 4 billion views. That's a whole lot more than the 14 million who watched real time TV.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I enjoyed the opening number, and that's not something I normally say about these "country" music awards shows. But this year with the tribute to women of country it was actually country music. All of it.

Nice to see Loretta in the audience.

I would have said Dolly can do no wrong but her Christian songs have never been my taste for some reason.

Luke Combs sounds pretty good. I could see that song he did actually being my taste in a few years.

Kacey Musgraves sounded great. Willie wasn't having a good night but he tried. His passion is still there.

I only watched two performances all the way through other than the opening number (Kacey and Willie was the other) and I didn't really enjoy the one that was a tribute to Kris Kristofferson. I wanted Joe Walsh to do a guitar solo, for one thing. Sheryl Crow looks amazing and not just for her age.

Most of the performances I didn't even need to see any of to know I could just skip them based on who they were. It's a shame I like hearing Carrie so much when she was actually doing a song I would consider country. I like Reba okay but I just don't care for "Fancy".

This was one year when the clips of all the new artist nominees actually sounded more country than most of the nominated songs or performers. I wish we could have hear more of each song.

 

[umfan]

CMA has a good product and they generally keep the broadcasts free of politics.

Further, the presenters, hosts and awardees seem genuinely happy to be there, unlike many of the other awards shows. It makes a difference.

The only other awards show I know this to be true of are the Peoples Choice Awards. It only airs on cable now. I have no idea how this years entry fared, E! aired it over multiple cable networks, but I liked the portions of the broadcast I saw.