While the comparison is not apples-to-apples, MTV nonetheless touts a substantial year-over-year viewership gain for the 2016 MTV Movie Awards.
Per an MTV press release, Sunday’s show drew 3.5 million live+same-day viewers across the nine networks (MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, BET, MTV 2, CMT, TV Land, VH1 Classic, and Logo) participating in the simulcast. That represents a 54% gain over last year’s ceremony which drew 2.3 million total viewers from four networks: MTV, VH1, MTV2 and Logo.
MTV also touts a gain in the target people 12-34 demographic; this year’s simulcast posted a 2.40 in the demo, while last year’s drew 1.97.
A network-by-network breakdown was not available at press time; such a breakdown will determine the extent to which the additional five simulcasting networks contributed to this year’s ratings uptick.
Kevin Hart and The Rock co-hosted this year’s show, which featured performances by Halsey and Ariana Grande. Will Smith was the annual recipient of the Generation Award.