This year's 60th Grammy Awards ceremony has been reported to have taken a significant dip in terms of viewership. Compared to the 2017 Grammy Awards, the numbers this year have dropped to 24 percent, which has become a concern for the showrunners behind the prestigious music awards body.
This year's Grammy Awards, which took place at the Madison Square Garden in New York, was broadcast by CBS network last Sunday, Jan. 28, and was watched by an estimated 19.8 million people, the lowest number of viewers since 2009 according to Nielsen Statistics. The show also failed to lure its target audience -- those who are 18-49 years old -- with the number of viewers from this bracket dropping by two percent from last year.
These numbers suggest that a significant number of the younger demographic are currently less interested in watching the awards show in its entirety, especially since they are capable of catching the show's highlights online through streaming services such as YouTube. This trend has been the same for other prestigious award ceremonies, such as the Oscars and this year's Golden Globe Awards.
James Corden, the host of "The Late Late Show," was appointed as the emcee for the Grammys.
It is safe to assume that the tension in both politics and social movements has been one of the key factors as to why there has been a decline in viewership and interest in high-profile celebrity events.
The silver lining that can be derived from this year's dip in ratings is that the 60th Grammy Awards still received more viewers compared to the Oscars and the Golden Globes, which occurred on Jan. 8 -- wherein Oprah Winfrey gave her moving speech about the "MeToo" and "Time's Up" movements. It is possible that the decline in viewership for these award shows may prove to be a steady trend in the future, but as of now, only time will tell.
