ABC promoted Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards as a major event, and the effort paid off. The show’s ratings improved significantly over last year’s numbers.
Sunday’s broadcast bested last year’s 2.7 adults 18-49 rating with an impressive 3.6 adults 18-49, a demo number that gave ABC a clear nightly victory. The awards ceremony averaged 9.47 million viewers.
As is often par for the course with three-hour results shows, viewership peaked during the midddle, 9PM hour, with the first half of that hour drawing a 3.9 adults 18-49 rating. Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves and Justin Bieber performed, while Madonna accepted an award during that peak segment.
The 9:30-10PM portion drew a 3.7 rating, which was the night’s second-best mark. In addition to several awards, the segment featured performances from Christina Aguilera, Pitbull, Miguel and Ed Sheeran.
“Family Guy” delivered a 2.6 with 5.18 million viewers as the night’s number two program with young adults.
