The final Grammy Awards on CBS took a small ratings hit compared to the previous year.
Sunday’s telecast of the 68th Grammys averaged 14.41 million viewers, according to big data plus panel same-day ratings from Nielsen. That’s down a little more than 6 percent from the 15.4 million who watched the 2025 show. The Grammys audience shrank some for the second consecutive year since hitting a post-pandemic high of 17.09 million viewers in 2024.
CBS has aired three of the four EGOT awards shows in 2025-26, starting with the Emmys in September, and has had mixed ratings results. The Emmys improved year to year (vs. ABC’s telecast in 2024) for their largest audience since 2021, but the Golden Globes in January declined by about the same amount (6.5 percent) as the Grammys. ABC will close out the awards season rush with the Oscars on March 15.
The Grammys did have a huge social media presence Sunday, ranking as the most social program of the past six months, including sports. The show generated 302.5 million video views across platforms and had 78.4 million interactions, CBS says.
Trevor Noah served as host of the Grammys for the sixth time, and Bad Bunny took home the award for album of the year, marking the first time a Spanish-language album has won in the category. Billie Eilish (song of the year), Kendrick Lamar (record of the year) and Olivia Dean (best new artist) also took home awards in high-profile categories.
The Grammys will move to Disney starting in 2027 as part of a 10-year deal with the Recording Academy. Next year’s show is set to be simulcast on ABC, Disney+ and Hulu. CBS aired the Grammys for more than 50 straight years, beginning in 1973.
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