TV Ratings for the CMA Awards Hit All-Time Low
It was a historic night for the CMA Awards as they celebrated their 50th Anniversary with a cavalcade of stars both new and old Wednesday evening (11-2), but not even a last-minute addition of pop superstar Beyonce, or an appearance by Taylor Swift handing out the evening’s Entertainer of the Year award could salvage ratings for the show. Unfortunately for the CMA’s an even more historic event—Game 7 of the World Series where the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians both tried to erase record-breaking post-season droughts—took precedence for the majority of television viewers.
The ratings for the CMA Awards fell an abysmal 24% from 2015 in the key demographic of 18 to 19-year-olds to a 2.9/8 share. It was an all-time ratings low for the event, and has to be considered a big disappointment after the Country Music Association expended incredible effort to make the 50th Anniversary show the biggest ever.
But if there was a silver lining, when taking into consideration total viewership beyond the 18 to 49 demographic (meaning many older viewers), the CMA’s only fell 7% compared to 2015. In other words, older viewers tuned in to see some of their favorite stars from the past like Roy Clark, Charley Pride, George Strait, Alan Jackson, and others that the CMA’s booked for the 50th Anniversary show. Ahead of the presentation, and anticipating a dip in numbers due to the World Series, some were worried a ratings slide might be interpreted as a rebuke of the older artists.
Meanwhile World Series Game 7 pulled an incredible 12.2/36 share among adults 18-49, and a total of 39.2 million viewers according to Deadline. That is up a historic 150% since the last Game 7 in 2014. The other major networks announced they had abandoned running new programming on the night, anticipating the big ratings grab by FOX and the World Series.
Ultimately though, it’s hard to blame the CMA’s for the ratings slip. Delaying the CMA’s until the next week would have put them too near the Presidential election, and moving them earlier could be troublesome with the baseball postseason as well. It was just bad timing, and resulted in an unfortunate outcome for both the CMA’s, and the country industry. The numbers also may skew in the CMA’s favor as folks who DVR’d the event watch it over the next week.
seak05
November 3, 2016 @ 10:32 am
The baseball numbers are stupid big. Never thought I’d say this, but CMA’s would’ve been better off going up against football. Those game 7 numbers are higher (by a decent amount) than the Game 7 numbers from the NBA finals between the Warriors & Cavs this year. To bad they couldn’t just push them back a night.
Given the competition they actually held up pretty well.
C.T. Stubbs
November 3, 2016 @ 2:19 pm
The CMA’s could not have expected a historic World Series Game 7 with the Cubs. The ratings were
very high for all 7 games, but especially # 7, by men & women. The show opening was a great
8 minutes, then they went too much Las Vegas and not enough Nashville. Not a bad show by any means!
HawkbitAlpha
November 3, 2016 @ 10:42 am
And country better off for it. I kept seeing the TV ads, and my eyes set to rolling once they started parading around bro-country singers as the best we have to offer. Sure sports may have drained the ratings this time around…but I’m pretty sure Beyoncé had something to do with it too. They tried to appeal to multiple crowds and disappointed all of them.
GerryJif22
November 3, 2016 @ 10:45 am
I actually thought the award show was entertaining. I did not like every winner, but I knew what I was getting into while watching it. Bad marketing led to this.
albert
November 3, 2016 @ 10:48 am
Certainly the timing up against a HUGE sporting event had an impact . But I wonder how or if its possible to gauge how people not even watching network TV any more might have affected ratings . In Canada , folks are cutting cable TV and its high costs and embracing alternatives in droves. And I wonder if it reflects folks recording one event to view later and watching another.
Lastly , my understanding is that ratings for this show have been slipping in recent years . Perhaps many viewers/ country music fans have just given up on ‘country’ music altogether because of the direction country radio has taken .
Trigger
November 3, 2016 @ 11:39 am
I think it’s unfair to try and gauge anything from the ratings of the 2016 CMA Awards. When you have such a massive juggernaut of a ratings vacuum in the mix, so much so that the other networks abandoned showing new shows and aired reruns, it’s just going to result in a down year, and there is nothing the CMA’s could do about it. If it was the Cardinals and the Rangers in a Game 7, the CMA’s would have beaten it.
sterling
November 3, 2016 @ 12:37 pm
Hey now let’s keep my Rangers out of this Trigger ?
Scottymi
November 4, 2016 @ 12:24 am
Wrong. At the time that game was the highest rated Series game since 2004. 14.7 rating and 25.4 million watching. The Cubs just won, don’t kick my Redbirds when we’re down
PumaOH24
November 7, 2016 @ 3:34 am
Yep.. I agree. The ratings for this show should have an asterisk on it since it was going up against a must see (for most baseball fans) World Series Game 7. I bet a lot of people DVRed the CMA’s so I’m sure there are a lot of “hidden ratings” that won’t be showing.
Bigfoot is Real (lonesome, on'ry, and mean)
November 3, 2016 @ 11:20 am
Couldn’t it be because it just wasn’t worth watching? Be honest now. C’mon…
Scott S.
November 3, 2016 @ 11:42 am
I wouldn’t have watched anyway.
Fat Freddy's Cat
November 3, 2016 @ 11:42 am
I didn’t watch it, but in my case that’s pretty meaningless. I never watch awards shows. I’m not some anti-TV crank (I own a TV and I do watch it) but I really can’t spare the 3+ hours that awards shows always seem to take, especially on a weeknight. I only watched about half of the ballgame, and then I had to turn it off because I wanted to get some guitar practice in, and then had to turn in because I have to be at work today.
Making awards shows less of a marathon event might be something that those folks should consider.
seak05
November 3, 2016 @ 12:00 pm
Side note: Looks like Maren received the biggest sales bump. Keith also made out well (as did many others).
albert
November 3, 2016 @ 7:09 pm
IMO Maren’s was THE BEST PERFORMANCE of the entire evening . She is phenomenal !
Leslie
November 3, 2016 @ 12:06 pm
Baseball had 40 million viewers & was the most watched game in 25 years. I taped the show & we watched the game live at a party, so guessing a bunch of other people did as well. I was kind of happy that they didn’t advertise Taylor or Beyoncé- it was more of rumors the day of.
Do we know why they moved up the date this year? Normally it is November 10-12 for example. Seems strange to have it during a possible World Serirs especially the 50th.
Scotty J
November 3, 2016 @ 12:40 pm
Election day I would imagine.
Trigger
November 3, 2016 @ 1:27 pm
It is usually the first Wednesday on November, or at least it has been in recent memory. They move it to next week and it’s right in the aftermath of the election. I love to goad the CMA’s, but I’m not sure how they schedule this differently. The only reason this is an issue is because the Cubs were in the World Series. Any other Game 7, and it hurts, but they still likely win the night.
Scotty J
November 3, 2016 @ 2:01 pm
Yep, and the other thing is the election is as late as it can be. This was all just a bunch of circumstances out of the CMA’s control leading to a very poor number.
One obvious answer would have been to move it to Thursday but ABC probably wouldn’t go for that as they have all those soap operas on Thursdays and that would accomplish little for them ratings wise.
On the bright side they can start preparing the press releases saying that the 2017 CMAs improved by, like, 30% year over year.
TheCheapSeats
November 3, 2016 @ 9:02 pm
Not so sure they win the night against any other Game 7. There is a reason networks pay big bucks for live sports. That’s pretty much the only thing people watch live anymore. Sure, they didn’t have a chance against Cubs/Indians, but I’m not so sure they could have won against, say Dodgers/Blue Jays.
It was a confluence of events that caused this, a calculated risk by the CMA’s. What are the chances that the World Series goes to a 7th game? What are the chances that it’s Cubs/Indians in a game 7?
Neither likely, but why schedule a signature 50th anniversary show on the same night a Game 7 “could” happen? It’s not like the MLB schedule is a mystery. Tonight (Thursday) would have been optimum. Surely they’re not that scared of crappy NFL on Thursday nights.
Nate
November 3, 2016 @ 10:39 pm
The CMA schedule was put into place months in advance. The World Series schedule is put into place in the middle of October depending on the length of the ALDS/NLDS and ALCS/NLCS, since those are 5 and 7 game series that can last as short as 4 days or as long as 9 days. Changing the CMA’s in just a few weeks would have been doable, but also would have been really difficult logistically. The WS schedule was also released before the Cubs had clinched the NLCS so it really came down to bad luck having the Cubs in the World Series and also forcing a Game 7 and just happening to have the previous series lengths dictate that Game 7 would fall on the same Wedsnesday.
Scotty J
November 4, 2016 @ 7:46 am
Nope. MLB sets the World Series schedule far in advance. No matter how the championship series went the World Series was going to start on Tuesday October 25 and end on November 2 if it went seven games. They have done this for several years now as they try to get the maximum ratings nights and by starting on Tuesday they missed going against Thursday Night Football and Monday Night Football leaving only college on Saturday and Sunday Night Football.
The NBA also has there finals schedule set no matter what happens in the prior rounds. TV is their god.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
November 3, 2016 @ 12:43 pm
Good. maybe next year there won’t be an awards show.
Whiskey Pete
November 3, 2016 @ 1:02 pm
Dwight’s duet with Stapleton was great. Only thing I watched.
Conwayfan98
November 3, 2016 @ 1:06 pm
Too much garbage in country music these days. That’s why nobody but teenagers tune in.
Mike W.
November 3, 2016 @ 1:37 pm
I’ll agree with you regarding the garbage part, but teens/millennials aren’t tuning into the CMA’s or any award shows. Hell, increasingly Millennials don’t even have cable or network television. The only hope the CMA’s had was going all in on the nostalgia aspect of the show. I watched the opening segment and it was solid, but then they slid on over to Kelsea Ballerini. I can’t imagine many older Country fans (the people who still have Cable/Satellite TV) wanting to pay attention to her. They also need to get rid of the Brad/Carrie “comedy troupe”. Brad can be funny in small doses, but too often the jokes that Carrie and Brad tell feel like the lame humor you hear by “family friendly” comedians not named Jim Gaffigan.
At the end of the day though, no matter what the CMA’s did they were likely dead in the water going up against a historic sporting event like Game 7 last night. The Beyonce thing was just their hail mary that failed spectacularly.
Fat Freddy's Cat
November 3, 2016 @ 1:08 pm
Another thing for them to consider is the changes to the technology. Somebody who wants to watch one particular thing on a show doesn’t have to sit through the whole show to see it. They can, for instance, DVR it and watch that one part, then dump the file. Or in many cases just look for a YouTube clip.
Mike Mergle
November 3, 2016 @ 1:13 pm
I would have watched live but I’m a die-hard Cubs fan and had to watch the game. I recorded the show and plan on watching when I have a chance.
I miss Steve Gaines
November 3, 2016 @ 1:16 pm
Those are Great tv ratings, ask Nascar!
Biscuit
November 3, 2016 @ 1:28 pm
I agree a World Series game with historical implications is hard to compete with. I believe most of the acting/music awards shows have been declining in ratings. I agree part of the reason is likely the age old tradition of 3 hour telecasts as “must watch, a once in a lifetime event” doesn’t play as well now. I’m betting people record the event and fast forward to “the good parts” or watch the highlights online. And let’s face it, three hours of patting oneself on the back is a bit much in any setting, even at your local high school awards banquet.
Larry
November 3, 2016 @ 1:51 pm
I would feel bad about this but for the 53 years I waited for the Cubs to finally win it all!!!
Mike W.
November 3, 2016 @ 3:01 pm
Can I just add that it is incredibly stupid that ABC or the CMA’s refuse to upload performance clips to YouTube? I get they have a deal with either CMT or GAC or whatever to re-air the shows, but you simply cannot build buzz by not having the ability for people to quickly and easily share videos to friends and family. I would love to send my parents a YouTube link of Stapleton and Yoakam performing together last night, but the only YouTube videos available are either incredibly bad quality or are getting yanked down due to Copyright infringement. Whoever is in charge of the CMA’s needs to get their act together and realize that very few people sit through 3 hour award shows anymore. They want to see the stuff that they like or has some buzz behind it and instead the archaic suits over at ABC/CMA’s can’t get out of their own way.
A. Michael Uhlmann
November 3, 2016 @ 3:47 pm
abc.com offers the clips, and if you can tell them who your TV provider is, you can watch the whole show… some of the “good” performances are included, the 8 minute intro is unfortunately missing.
Justin
November 3, 2016 @ 3:10 pm
I wish Barbara Mandrell would’ve sung last night, and my mom wished it too. Do you think she’ll ever perform again, even for 30 seconds?
Tony A. Barnes
June 19, 2019 @ 6:47 pm
We all wish Barbara mandrell would perform again….
seak05
November 3, 2016 @ 3:24 pm
That time when, all the legit complaints about Beyonce complaining get made to look ridiculous/are swept out, by the racist idiots who posted comments, and the idiotic CMA awards for deleting the Beyonce/Dixie Chicks tweets in response.
ElectricOutcast
November 3, 2016 @ 5:01 pm
I was just about to say something about that, from what I heard because of the backlash, the CMA deleted every record of that performance.
seak05
November 3, 2016 @ 5:04 pm
Yep, they did, and now they’re trying to put them all back up after they got caught having deleted them.
ShadeGrown
November 3, 2016 @ 4:56 pm
I can’t even begin to understand how or why people watch award shows. If you watched the World Series you won.
Kevin Smith
November 4, 2016 @ 8:01 am
Nope…I didn’t win, I’m an Ohio guy and my beloved Indians didn’t seal the deal. And the part of the CMAs I saw left me cold, missed Dwight and Chris entirely. ROUGH night for me.
vince
November 3, 2016 @ 4:59 pm
a lot of people boycotted due to fat butt twerking racist cop hater beyonce was on ,seriously do you think beyonce will attract a country crowd at all or turn them off?
seak05
November 3, 2016 @ 6:08 pm
Hey Trigger, Justin’s label apparently submitted “Drink you away” for best country solo performance, and best country song, for the grammy’s
Caitlin
November 3, 2016 @ 6:22 pm
This is disappointing because I thought it was one of the best CMA shows in years. I loved seeing the older artists. For those of us who did watch, we got a memorable and enjoyable show.
Gena R.
November 3, 2016 @ 6:47 pm
Agreed. Loved that opening medley, as well as the Dolly tribute, George & AJ, Garth & Trisha, EC & RG, and Yoakam & Stapleton. 🙂
Caitlin
November 3, 2016 @ 11:05 pm
Agree! I loved all those parts too. I’m 27. So I grew up with the 90s country and loved it deeply, but the show introduced me to some of the older performers and inspired me to seek out more of their music. That’s why I loved the show last night–it celebrated both the past and the present.
Strait Country 81
November 3, 2016 @ 7:33 pm
Fantastic News!
Decline until they can’t exist anymore.
Blackwater
November 3, 2016 @ 7:45 pm
Shoulda booked the most important person in country music, yelawolf
Kevin Smith
November 4, 2016 @ 8:05 am
You left out Mikel Knight!!
Cachinnation
November 3, 2016 @ 9:29 pm
Glad you put the DVR section in there, because that is what I did. I was actually enthralled by the CMA’s this year (even with Jason Aldean butchering songs). It was a great show and I was glad with the presentation of it all. Thanks for reporting these statistics, as I wouldn’t have remembered to look them up. Enjoyed the Live Blog also. Agree with most, if not all, of your sentiments. Keep up the great work Trig!
albert
November 3, 2016 @ 10:26 pm
Honest to God ….. what is it with Aldean . How does this guy have a following at all much less a successful career . Shit songs which the artist can’t sing . How does THAT fly ? Man ….if THIS guy can make it happen surely ANYBODY on the planet can make it happen .
Lynne
November 3, 2016 @ 9:51 pm
I did not like the show. Brad and Carrie have hosted the show for the past nine consecutive years, and it is time for New Hosts and a New Direction. Also, for Credibility, it is imperative that awards be merit-based, which often did not happen.
Woogeroo
November 4, 2016 @ 3:11 am
I recall a time when my entire family would sit down to watch the two country awards shows in their entirety. Now I don’t recall the last time I even watched a portion of either. After reading on here that they were going to have some artists I actually like on there, we did record it, but I haven’t watched(meaning fast forward through the BS) it yet.
Robert S.
November 4, 2016 @ 3:47 am
Can’t understand why anyone would watch this or any other award shows. Other than Eric Church, Lori McKenna and Chris Stapleton, the award nominees were mediocre to awful. I promise to start watching when the artist of the past year who delivers the best new music get the recognition they deserve. Cody Jinks, Austin Lucas, Sturgill Simpson, Margo Price, Kelsey Waldon, Chelle Rose and Parker Milsap to name a few. Yes it is good that some of the old stars were given some stage time. However I see this as misdirection by the mainstream country machine to keep feeding the same flaccid paplum they have been marketing for the past 26 years. Artist like Jamey Johnson and Sturgill Simpson have produced some of the best country music of all time. Why are they not revered and apppreciated? So where do we go from here? Take a look at the top 40 from the country music charts and compare that to the top 40 Americana. Americana is the current and future for quality music. Already many of the best country music artist frequent this list on a weekly basis. So the good news is great music is being produced and readily available.
Sandy
November 4, 2016 @ 5:31 am
Blake’s Fan’s said they would not watch and he has a lot of Fan’s!!!
RWP
November 4, 2016 @ 6:34 am
But..but..According to Beyoncé fans it was the highest rated CMA show of all time.
Kevin Smith
November 4, 2016 @ 8:03 am
Consider the source!
HiYUN
November 4, 2016 @ 6:55 am
So glad racist cop hating ass Beyonce caused a ratings crash… you can damn well be sure I will never ever tune into another CMA event.
The shame of having George Strait and Alan Jackson alongside her.
Jack Williams
November 4, 2016 @ 8:12 am
As my old high school physics teacher would say when someone ask “That’s not going to be on the test, right, Mr. Burns?”:
You just go right on thinkin’ that.
Steven
November 11, 2016 @ 9:55 pm
Alan Jackson walked out after he saw her. xD
bamstrait
November 4, 2016 @ 9:09 am
I hope in the future they will find new hosts and new writers, I have had enought of those two and their silly banter, as well as their mutilple performances every year. Legend just sitting in the audience while Brad and Carrie have endless solos, duets and group performances.
Andrew
November 4, 2016 @ 9:29 am
Can’t draw any meaningful conclusions from this year’s ratings. No matter what they did their numbers were going to get destroyed by Game 7.
hoptowntiger94
November 5, 2016 @ 10:41 am
Serves them right! The decision to move the CMAs to November 10-11 years ago was a TV decision (sweeps week) and counterintuitive to the benefit of the music industry. I’m not sure if baseball games 6 & 7s went into November a decade ago (the year of September 11 the exception). I think the expansion of the playoffs pushed the decisive game in competition with the award show.
When the CMAs were held the last week of September/ first week in October, it was a showcase for 4th quarter new releases and those last singles being shipped to radio before the Christmas music started. The show was chalked with new music and not forced duets and silly collaborations that benifit tv viewership (and not album sales).
The award show moving to November and the increased madness of Black Friday (and the decline of the physical product) the industry adapted – there were NEVER major new releases in November like Miranda Lamberts upcoming album.
Camie Jo
November 6, 2016 @ 8:29 am
I watched the entire show. My takeaway was the stark contrast between the professionalism of new artists vs. tried and true country artists. Some really cannot carry a tune or stay on pitch. I don’t get the appeal, I really don’t.
TopJimmy
November 7, 2016 @ 7:51 am
MLB knows a year in advance their World Series Schedule. CMA has nobody to blame but themselves. They took a gamble by scheduling the awards on a potential Game 7 and the CMA lost that gamble. I bet you they never do that again.
Kinsey
March 9, 2017 @ 7:39 pm
If there’s a ratings decline for the CMA or ACM shows it is not because there are “older country musicians” performing or presented, far from it! It is because the country music award shows have been an abysmal failure for years. The producers try much too hard to be flashy and loud…there are already plenty of superficial awards shows that look exactly like this, it’s not original. Why do country music fans/performers need to be subjected to recycled ideas and numerous performers and presenters from other genres when other genres couldn’t care less whether country music is represented at other award shows? Travis Tritt is spot on accurate. We don’t need Beyonce, or anyone else, in order to feel validated. How many years have we seen pop, rap, r & b artists performing on stage while Country Music Legends are shown sitting 3rd, 4th row back in the audience?
The Nashville industry bosses have not shown respect or consideration to many country musicians or to true country music fans in years.
The first order of business should be to fire every person in charge of producing these shows. My husband and I are 40, our daughter is 15 and our son, 19. Our parents, our siblings and their families, our extended family members and most of our friends are also critical of country awards shows. The general consensus is that they seem to get worse, year after year. The handful of decent country performers we get to watch is not enough to satisfy when we’ve spent 3 hours watching country music pretend it’s pop or rap.
“Style” over substance is blatantly obvious and most of those who are true fans of country music are not easily impressed. The CMA and ACM show ratings will continue to decline as long as Nashville continues to try to impress everyone except the actual fans.
Kent Watson
April 3, 2017 @ 4:13 pm
Very disappointed in the CMA awards show last evening. Im a huge fan of country music but it has turned to pop music. All the greats are retiring or playing low key to spend time with family. Still a lot of greats, just disappointed that more of the greats didnt win more awards. The new kids on the block took undeserved awards in my opinion.