Viewership for ABC’s American Music Awards sunk to a record low last week, following the trend for awards shows, dropping 28 percent from last year’s telecast, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen Tuesday.
The three-hour, five-minute telecast from the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles averaged 6.584 million viewers, finishing fourth in its 8-11:05 p.m. time slot Oct. 9 and 34th among broadcast and cable programs airing between Oct. 8 and Sunday.
The previous low was 8.182 million viewers for the 2016 ceremony. Viewership for nearly all forms of programming in recent years has declined because of increased viewership of streaming programming. The Oscars and Emmys drew record-low viewership earlier this year while the Grammys averaged its smallest audience since 2009.
Factors for the American Music Awards’ drop in viewership include a shift to a Tuesday night in October from a Sunday in November where it had aired from 2007-17 when more people are watching television and TBS’ coverage of the final game of the American League Division Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees opposite it.
Boston’s series-clinching 4-3 victory averaged 7.194 million viewers, 27th for the week.
Despite the drop in viewership, the American Music Awards gave ABC its most-watched Tuesday since April 3.
The American Music Awards has aired annually since 1974, always on ABC. It averaged a record-48.158 million viewers in 1985 when it aired in January and there was less competition for viewers and fewer leisure-time options.
The week’s only premiere on the four major broadcast networks, the ABC Sunday night talk show “The Alec Baldwin Show,” was 84th among broadcast programs, averaging 2.073 million viewers. Its overall ranking was not available.
For the second consecutive week, “FBI” was the week’s most-watched new series, averaging 9.178 million viewers, a 2 percent drop from its 9.374-million average a week earlier. “FBI” retained 74.4 percent of the audience of “NCIS” which preceded it compared to 77.3 percent the previous week.
CBS announced last week it had given “FBI” a full-season order. The NBC medical drama “New Amsterdam” is the other new series for the 2018-19 season to receive a full-season order.
For the sixth time in the six-week-old NFL season, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” was the week’s most-watched program.
The New England Patriots 43-40 victory over the previously undefeated Kansas City Chiefs on Stephen Gostkowski’s 28-yard field goal as time expired averaged 21.107 million viewers, 30.6 percent more than the 16.158 million average for last year’s Week 6 “Sunday Night Football” game, the New York Giants 23-10 victory over the Denver Broncos which averaged 16.158 million viewers.
The order of finish among the four major broadcast networks was unchanged from the previous week.
NBC finished first, averaging 7.84 million viewers, followed by CBS, which averaged 7.25 million, Fox, which averaged 5.3 million, and ABC, which averaged 5.17 million.
Outside of its football programming, NBC’s most-watched program was the Monday episode of the singing competition “The Voice,” 11th for the week averaging 9.577 million viewers.
CBS had five of the week’s eight most-watched programs, topped by the comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” fourth for the week averaging 12.948 million viewers.
CBS also benefited from its NFL coverage. Its 19-minute runover of its afternoon coverage into prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones averaged 17.3 million viewers while its 11-minute postgame show averaged 12.631 million viewers, fifth for the week.
The runover is not considered a separate program but is included in the weekly average.
Fox’s most-watched program was “Thursday Night Football,” with the Philadelphia Eagles 34-13 victory over the New York Giants averaging 14.759 million, second for the week and a 1.2 percent increase over the Week 6 “Thursday Night Football” game in 2017, Philadelphia’s 28-23 victory over the Carolina Panthers which aired on CBS.
Outside of its football programming, Fox’s most-watched program was the comedy “Last Man Standing,” 38th for the week averaging 6.32 million viewers.
NBC aired 21 1/2 hours of programming for ratings purposes, CBS and ABC both 22 and Fox 15 hours, 58 minutes.
The week’s most-watched cable program was ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game, with the New Orleans Saints 43-19 victory over Washington averaging 10.737 million viewers, ninth for the week.
Viewership was up 3.7 percent from last season’s Week 5 game, the Minnesota Vikings 20-17 victory over the Chicago Bears which averaged 10.356 million viewers, 13th overall.
A “Monday Night Football” game has been the most-watched cable program each week of the NFL season.
Coverage of American League postseason games made TBS the most-watched cable network, averaging 3.941 million viewers. Fox News Channel edged ESPN for second, 2.54 million-2.534 million.
The most-watched Spanish-language prime-time program was the Monday episode of the Univision telenovela “O Rico e Lazaro,” which averaged 1.919 million viewers to finish 87th among broadcast programs. Its overall place was not available.
Univision averaged 1.31 million viewers to finish first among the Spanish-language networks for the seventh consecutive week. Telemundo finished second, averaging 1.24 million, followed by UniMas, which finished averaged 340,000 viewers, Estrella TV, which averaged 290,000, and Azteca America, which averaged 70,000.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was the most-watched network nightly newscast for the 46th consecutive week and 57th of the past 58, averaging 8.616 million viewers.
The “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was second, averaging 8.053 million viewers.
The “CBS Evening News” averaged 6.176 million viewers. It has finished third each week since the week of Sept. 25-29, 2006.
The week’s 10 most-watched prime-time programs were NBC’s “Sunday Night Football”; Fox’s “Thursday Night Football”; NBC’s nine-minute “Sunday Night Football” pre-kickoff show; CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory,” its 11-minute NFL postgame show, “NCIS,” “60 Minutes” and “Young Sheldon”; ESPN’s “Monday Night Football”; and the 24-minute third segment of NBC’s “Football Night in America.”