Not simply down year-to-year, the 2017 Radio Disney Music Awards ceremony set a franchise low in live+same-day viewership.
According to L+SD data posted by Showbuzz, Sunday’s Radio Disney Music Awards ceremony averaged 1.70 million overall viewers.
The number, which represents the lowest posted by a Disney Channel broadcast of the RDMA, trails the 2.24 million mark garnered by last year’s show.
The 2016 ceremony also delivered stronger marks in key teen and young adults demographics (although this year’s show was actually stronger from a competitive standpoint in adults 18-49, improving from #17 to #13 among Sunday cable originals).
Comparative data for kid and tween demographics (targets for Disney) was not available at press time.
It is also worth noting that a portion of last year’s ceremony faced competition from a rival music awards show in the American Country Countdown Awards. The ACCA was not a major ratings draw (3.81 million viewers), but it is hard to ignore the possibility of some audience overlap.
With the television landscape continuously shifting in favor of DVR and digital viewing, it is possible the year-to-year loss will be less significant (if it exists at all) in the context of overall reach. Disney Channel may share that kind of year-to-year comparison in the coming days.
