MTV’s VMAs are making a bit of a comeback. After struggling in viewership the past two years (like many award shows), Sunday night’s telecast saw a 3% boost in viewership.
The awards show drew a total of 3.9 million linear viewers, which is up from the 3.7 million who tuned into last year’s telecast. However, this year’s show didn’t move the needle much among the advertiser-friendly 18-49 demographic, with the ratings sitting about roughly the same as 2021 (about a 2.8 in gross ratings).
MTV’s research and PR teams also combine Nielsen’s linear numbers for the VMAs with their own internal digital data into a proprietary metric called “Total Minutes Consumed” (TMC). For the 2022 VMAs, they say that number came out to 1.59 billion, which is a 14% jump from the previous telecast.
Sunday’s show aired across MTV, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV2, Nickelodeon, CW, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land, and VH1.
According to MTV, the show was a hit on social media, where it generated more than 40 million interactions — beating the Super Bowl and the Oscars. It marked the “most social” VMAs of all time, up 6% in interactions.
Last night’s winners included Lil Nas X for his video collaboration with Jack Harlow on “Industry Baby” and Taylor Swift for Video of the Year (she also announced a new album in her acceptance speech). Nicki Minaj, who received the Video Vanguard award, also picked up a Best Hip Hop statuette for “Do We Have A Problem?” with Young Money. You can find a full list of those who took home a trophy here.
