Music’s Biggest Night was certainly the star of Sunday evening’s broadcast network options, bringing CBS the award for Best Primetime Nielsen Ratings.
However, the James Corden-hosted special only had originals on ABC to contend with during its time slot. It also didn’t perform nearly as well as his first go-round in 2017, taking a 21 percent hit in ratings, according to preliminary numbers.
Click here to read the Grammys overnight numbers. The below fast nationals are not time zone adjusted and thus an imperfect measurement. Final Nielsen ratings for Music’s Biggest Night will be out later today.
CBS was first in ratings with a 5.0 rating/18 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 16.7 million, according to preliminary numbers. At 7, the live Grammys red carpet special took a 2.2/9 and 9.7 million viewers. Through prime’s 11 o’clock ET cutoff, the awards show itself dragged up the overall four-hour average with the aforementioned averages.
ABC was second in ratings with a 1.0/3 and in viewers with 4.8 million. Following repeats, at 9, “Shark Tank” posted a 1.1/4 and 4.5 million viewers. A second episode at 10 earned a 1.0/4 and 3.9 million viewers.
NBC was third in ratings with a 0.5/2 and in viewers with 2.5 million. The Peacock aired only repeats and a telecast of the 2014 flick “Neighbors.”
Fox was fourth in ratings with a 0.4/1 and in viewers with 1.2 million. The network’s lineup was also stacked with reruns.
Univision and Telemundo tied for fifth in ratings with a 0.3/1.
Telemundo was fifth in viewers with 1.06 million.
Univision was sixth in viewers with 1.03 million.
The CW does not broadcast nationally on Sundays.