The CMA Awards were wise to wait for the World Series to wrap up this year.
ABC’s country music awards show dominated Wednesday night, leaving Fox’s “Empire” in the dust. The Disney owned broadcaster more than doubled second-place CBS’ total viewer tally.
The CMAs, which foolishly went up against Game 7 of the Fall Classic last year, just reached its largest audience since 2014.
ABC was first in ratings with a 3.2 rating/12 share in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic and in total viewers with an average of 14.3 million, according to preliminary numbers. The awards show aired for all three hours of primetime, averaging those figures.
Fox was second in ratings with a 1.5/6, but fourth in viewers with 4.6 million. “Empire” at 8 p.m. posted a 1.8/7 and 5.4 million viewers. At 9, “Star” received a 1.2/4 and 3.8 million viewers.
CBS was third in ratings with a 1.1/4 and second in viewers with 6.5 million. “Survivor” at 8 put up a 1.6/6 and 7.7 million viewers. At 9, “SEAL Team” had a 0.9/3 and 6.2 million viewers. “Criminal Minds” at 10 landed a 0.9/4 and 5.5 million viewers.
NBC was fourth in ratings with a 0.9/3 and third in viewers with 5 million. “The Blacklist” at 8 had a 0.9/3 and 5 million viewers. At 9, “Law & Order: SVU” got a 1.1/4 and 4.9 million viewers.
Univision and Telemundo tied for fifth in ratings, both with a 0.5/2. Univision was fifth in total viewers with 1.43 million, Telemundo was sixth with 1.38 million.
The CW was seventh in ratings with a 0.4/1 and in viewers with 1.1 million. “Riverdale” at 8 received a 0.5/2 and 1.5 million viewers. At 9, “Dynasty” settled for a 0.2/1 and 722,000 viewers.