Fans of country music awards shows have limits.
FOX’s inaugural “American Country Awards” show did not make a case to recur as an annual tradition; the festivities could only muster a 1.5 adults 18-49 rating with 5.97 million viewers. Well below the usual numbers for the CMA Awards and ACM Awards, the performance was even below that of FOX’s Carrie Underwood holiday special from last year.
After reaching red hot levels last year, ratings for music awards shows have been softening in recent months, and the introduction of a new awards show that lacked industry heritage, ample promotion and extensive participation from stars like Taylor Swift seemed like an idea tailor-made for disappointment.
Elsewhere, though The CW’s “90210” and “Gossip Girl” were essentially on par with their most recent performances, the lineup received the distinction of actually beating ABC from 8PM-9PM. Based on rounding, “90210”‘s 1.0 with 2.14 million viewers slightly tops the 1.0 with 4.93 million viewers for the 8PM portion of “Skating with the Stars,” and ABC’s numbers are possibly inflated by the Boston-area pre-emption for the Jets-Patriots game. At 9PM, “Gossip Girl” clocked in with a 1.1 and 2.08 million viewers.