Update 2: Sunday’s Billboard Music Awards ceremony received another slight upward adjustment in the final national report.
According to Showbuzz, it drew a 3.2 adults 18-49 rating and 9.76 million total viewers. The numbers trail those of last year’s show (3.8, 11.18 million) by 16% and 13%, respectively.
The adults 18-49 rating is the lowest since the 2012 show (2.7), while the viewer mark is the lowest since 2013 (9.5 million).
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Update: Citing time-adjusted fast national data, ABC says Sunday’s 2016 Billboard Music Awards ceremony drew a 3.1 adults 18-49 rating and 9.6 million total live+same-day viewers.
Barring adjustments in the final report, the numbers will be down by 18% and 14%, respectively, from the 3.8 rating and 11.2 million viewer mark posted by the 2015 show.
The adults 18-49 rating is the lowest since the 2012 show (2.7), while the viewer mark is the lowest since 2013 (9.5 million).
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While time zone-adjusted viewership and adults 18-49 figures will not be available until Monday afternoon, preliminary ratings data suggest a year-to-year decline for the Billboard Music Awards.
According to metered market data posted by Programming Insider, Sunday’s three-hour show averaged a 6.1 overnight household rating. While easily the night’s best rating, it trails the 7.6 drawn by last year’s show.
It should be noted that the decline in adults 18-49 and total viewership will not necessarily be proportionate to that endured in the overnight households. The 7.6 drawn by last year’s show, as an example, was up 13% from the 2014 number. The adults 18-49 (3.8) and total viewership figures (11.18 million), however, were only up by 9% and 4%, respectively.
It should also be noted that Sunday’s broadcast aired live on both coasts. While the overnight ratings are program-based and account for the live west coast airing, the “fast national” numbers (the ratings that come out at around 11AM ET) will not. One will need to wait until this afternoon’s time zone-adjusted numbers to gain a sense of how the 2016 show fared in adults 18-49 and total viewership.
