The 55th Annual Grammy Awards took a ratings hit compared to last year's ceremony, when the death of Whitney Houston drew heightened interest in the show, but Sunday night's Grammys easily pushed CBS to an overall win, according to preliminary numbers.
The Grammys at 8 p.m. drew a 10.1 rating in the key 18-49 demographic and attracted 28.4 million total viewers. That's down considerably from the 14.1 rating that last year's ceremony drew in preliminary numbers. The show had the second-largest audience for the Grammys since 1993, but predictably dropped from last year's 39 million total viewers. Last year's show had the second-highest audience ever for the music awards ceremony. (In final ratings, the post-Houston ceremony drew a 14.1/33).
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Sunday's ceremony handily pushed the network to the top of the heap on Sunday night. Combined with "60 Minutes" at 7, which was up 12 percent for a 1.9/5 and took 11.1 million total viewers, the ceremony gave CBS an average 8.2/20 and 24.5 million total viewers.
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Fox took a distant second place in ratings and third in total viewers with a 1.8/4 and 3.5 million. Following a "Bob's Burgers" repeat, "The Cleveland Show" at 7:30 drew a 1.0/3 with 2.2 million total viewers. "The Simpsons" at 8 drew a 2.1/5 and had 4.3 million total viewers, while a new "Bob's Burgers" at 8:30 drew a 1.8/4 and took 3.4 million total viewers. "Family Guy" at 9 drew a 2.4/5, down 17 percent from its last original two weeks ago, but it was still the night's second-highest rated show behind the Grammys. It drew 4.6 million total viewers. "American Dad" at 9:30 had a 2.0/4 and 3.8 million total viewers.
ABC came in third in ratings and second in total viewers with a 1.5/4 and 5.6 million. "America's Funniest Home Videos" at 7 had a 1.8/5 and 7.3 million total viewers, while "Once Upon a Time" the following hour dipped to a 2.2/5 and drew 7 million total viewers. "Revenge" at 9 drew a 1.4/3 with 5 million total viewers, while the special "ABC News: Revenge for Real" the following hour had a 0.8/2 with 2.9 million total viewers.
NBC tied Univision for fourth place with a 0.8/2 and took fourth place in total viewers with 3.5 million, compared to Univision's 2.5 million. The time-period premiere of "Dateline" at 7 drew a 1.2/3, down 20 percent from Friday's airing, and took 5.7 million total viewers. Following a repeat of "Betty White's 2nd Annual 90th Birthday Special," "SNL Primetime: In the 80s Lost & Found" at 9 took a 0.8/2 with 2.6 million total viewers.