Sunday night brought a lot of season finales to broadcast television and the Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs) back to May on NBC. While the end-of-weekend awards show sure worked out for The Weeknd, these Billboard awards did very little for their host network.
The 2021 BBMAs settled for a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49 and 2.8 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. Those are new lows for the annual special.
In the key demo, NBC’s Billboard awards from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ranked second in primetime to ABC’s “American Idol” season finale. The awards show was third in overall audience size.
Last year’s Billboard Awards were delayed until October, when they sunk 62% from the 2019 special in key-demo ratings (with a 0.8) and 55% in overall viewers (3.6 million), according to preliminary data. At the time, those were a new all-time low — and by quite a bit.
Of course, the BBMAs are not the only awards show that more than halved its year-to-year viewership during the coronavirus pandemic.
Due to a delay at Nielsen, we did not get Sunday’s (reliable) ratings until Tuesday morning.
CBS and ABC tied for first place in ratings among adults 18-49 on Sunday, both with a 0.8. CBS was first in total viewers with 7.4 million.
For CBS, the tail end of Phil Mickelson’s PGA Championship victory, which leaked into primetime’s first half-hour, averaged a 1.8 rating and 11.2 million total viewers from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. That provided a really strong start for “60 Minutes,” which rarely needs the assist. From 7:30 to 8:30, the newsmagazine program earned a 0.7 rating and 8.3 million total viewers. Queen Latifiah’s “The Equalizer” season finale from 8:30 to 9:30 had a 0.7 rating and 7.1 million total viewers. The “NCIS: Los Angeles” season finale from 9:30 to 10:30 got a 0.6 rating and 6.2 million total viewers. From 10:30 to 11:30, the “NCIS: New Orleans” season finale received a 0.5 rating and 5.2 million total viewers.
For ABC, the “America’s Funniest Home Videos” season finale at 7 had a 0.6 rating and 4.3 million total viewers. The three-hour “American Idol” season finale starting at 8 put up a 0.9 rating and 6.5 million total viewers.
Fox was a non-factor with its comedy lineup, finishing fourth on Sunday. Univision and Telemundo tied for fifth place in ratings, and The CW was seventh.