Hyper-Political AMAs Plunge 21% In The Ratings, Hit Record Low

CBS: 6.5/11, NBC: 5.8/10, ABC: 4.8/ 8, Fox: 1.8/ 3, CW: 1.3/ 2

CBS, as expected, topped this third Tuesday in the household overnights, while NBC is a lock for victory in adults 18-49 (and all the key young adult demos). But ABC, despite year-to-year slippage, was also on the overnight map care of the annual “American Music Awards,” which scored a 4.8 rating/8 share in households from 8-11 p.m. Comparably, this was 21 percent below the 6.1/10 for the year-ago telecast (on Sunday, Nov. 19, 2017).

The AMAs settled for a 1.8 rating this year among adults 18-49, which is the demographic most attractive to advertisers. It had a 2.4 in 2017, when the special aired on a Sunday in November. Last year’s 2.4 tied the previous record-low set by the 2016 version.

Here are the (mostly) comparable 2017 AMAs ratings. That one didn’t do great either, but its Nielsen returns were 25 percent less-bad than last night’s.