LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The 2008 Grammy Award show managed to garner the lowest rating in more than a decade and showed a steep slip of 17% from last year.
According to MediaDaily News, the 50th anniversary of the iconic award show managed a preliminary Neilsen rating of 6.9 percent among its key 18-49 agegroup demographic, down from 8.3 in 2007. In real numbers, the show managed to lure 18.2 million viewers as opposed to about 20 million last year.
The decline in Grammy viewership comes hot on the heels of similar results for other programs such as the People's Choice Awards and the Golden Globes which were both hampered by the writer's strike.
The Grammy Awards were not encumbered by labor disputes however and some prognosticators had believed that the recent paucity of star-studded entertainment fare, but this proved not to be the case.
Other observers noted that the proximity of the Grammy show to the end of the strike may have hurt the show with some potential viewers not being up to date with developments in the strike.
While CBS still managed to lead the ratings for the night with their Grammy broadcast, they had some close competition from ABC, which picked up a 6.1 share with a home makeover show – go figure. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
