Kids Choice Awards | Charley Gallay/Getty Images courtesy of Nickelodeon
Hype for the 2018 Kids’ Choice Awards seemed light in comparison to that for past ceremonies. The performer lineup — JoJo Siwa and N.E.R.D — also seemed somewhat low-profile, particularly from a mainstream buzz standpoint.
Awards shows also appear to be struggling in general.
It should therefore come as no surprise that live+same-day ratings for this year’s ceremony trailed those of the 2017 edition.
According to live+same-day data posted by Showbuzz, the Nickelodeon broadcast averaged 1.87 million overall viewers.
A simulcast on TeenNick added 0.28 million in viewership, thus yielding a 2.15 million viewer mark across the two networks. Last year’s ceremony drew a combined 3.28 million viewer mark across the two networks.
Both ceremonies also aired concurrently on NickToons. The 2017 NickToons airing drew a 0.34 million viewer mark. A viewership figure for the 2018 NickToons broadcast was not available at press time, but it looks to have been lower than that drawn by the 2017 edition.
As such, there is no way NickToons closed the gap. This year’s show indeed drew a far smaller audience than last year’s telecast.
— Along with performers Siwa and N.E.R.D, this year’s show welcomed John Cena as host. Cena also hosted last year’s broadcast, which featured performances by Little Mix and Machine Gun Kelly & Camila Cabello.