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Despite delivering a kaleidoscope of acts with the likes of Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande, and Christina Aguilera leading the bill (click here to watch), the curators of the Billboard Music Awards were delivered news the 2018 edition had courted its lowest viewership since 2006.
Moving the show to a new network home of NBC (where it aired last night), the ceremony reeled in less than last year’s ABC-aired showing which, at the time, was itself a decade low with 8.7 million viewers.
Curious to see how much last night’s affair drew? Look inside:
“Time-zone adjusted numbers put the 2018 Billboard Music Awards at 7.9 million viewers. That is a new low for the awards show in the key demo. It is also a decrease of approximately 8% in the demo and 9% in total viewers compared to the 2017 ceremony.
Nevertheless, it was the top-rated program on Sunday night in the demo.” [source]
Well…it is what it is. Most people didn’t know it was coming on and they found out they really didn’t care. 7 million for an award is just a slap in the face. Did they even promote?
I don’t think so. I never saw one commercial for it until the day before, and I still didn’t watch it lol. I watched the performances online yesterday like everybody else.
1. Not enough male performers
2. This is expected. TV on demand is the trending way to watch TV because no commercials and you watch it when you want to
@Jasmine: That is an interesting thought. What male performers might have brought more viewers to the table? Rappers? Singers?
On Demand does have commercials, just not as many. Plus for many of the programs you cannot fast forward at all.
With all the Janet, Taylor Snake and BTS hype I would have thought the ratings would be better.
UBitch
A certain artist wasn’t there, that’s why. ?
Obviously they needed more then just Janet’s whispers to full the likes of talented artists!!
U mean Beyoncé’s idol?
lmao roach screeching wouldnt have done better, she couldnt even get 500K people to stream her screetching at roachella lmfao
Exactly, CHER should’ve been there’s like the prior year.
lmao the rating would have been even lower if roach showed up. she couldnt even pull 500K streams for roachella so lets not lmfaoooooo
Meh. Awards shows all across the board have suffered from low ratings for some years now. The media and music landscape is so fragmented that it’s hard to get people to sit through hours of performances by artists they don’t care about.
Why watch someone who uses autotune/studio tricks normally, butcher songs “live”?
When back in the day you had Celine, Michael, Cher, Mariah, Prince, Madonna, Whitney, Janet, Elton, etc, all taking the stage in their primes?
It’s nothing but corn pop and f****** stupid nowadays.
Been going on for years next year it will be lower
Janet slayed
They will go downhill with each year. No one cares for these shows were the showbusiness is just celebrating itself. All we care for are the performances and we can see them online. So why should we watch the entire show of self-congratulation?
Where
Y’all had too many Latinos performing
this is expected in todays age. People dont have the attention span to commit to such long shows when they can watch their favorite clips on demand the next day. Ratings for all shows will continue to drop across the board
But performances r still trending fewer people will watch the actual telecast each year
And with beyonce the results would have been the same
lmao even lower, roach doesnt pull viewers and thats a fact lmao
Not surprised. Award show ratings across the board are all on a decline thanks to streaming & on-demand, not to mention that basically nobody sits through an entire award show anymore. Eventually theyre gonna stop broadcasting on TV altogether & start streaming these shows from their websites.
Janet still slayed lives though lol.
Does it matter Janet still benefited from it ,record sales has gone up and her albums all have charted on I tunes chart.
TV is dieing, period.
Janet can’t even pull in the viewers oh well people have list interest in her.
Well of course it was gonna be low rated. The only big event that was happening was Janet. There were no Rihanna, Taylor, Nicki, Drake, and whoever else is hot. Nobody is gonna tune in for a 3 hour show just to watch 1 person. I know I wouldn’t. Also they moved it to a new network NBC and nobody watches NBC. Also the NBA finals were on the same time.
Hardly no black performers, sounds about white
Poor Janet couldn’t even pull in the viewers, oh well no ones is checking for her anymore. It’s seems the Jackson name is losing its appeal it’s the only reason she became famous off her brother like the rest of the Jackson’s.
Poor Janet… increased her catalog sales up 939% … so RICHER Janet. LMAO
The NBA PLAYOFFS …. ARE U SERIOUS