By David Bauder, Media Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Despite a night of feel-good vibes and performances by the music industry's top acts, the Grammy Awards barely moved the needle as a television attraction.
The show reached just under 9.6 million viewers on Sunday, the Nielsen company said. That's a 4% increase over 2021's broadcast, a more intimate affair because of the pandemic, and the smallest-ever audience for the Grammys by a wide margin.
Any year-to-year viewership increase is usually a cause for celebration in today's television world. But that has to be considered a disappointing showing when you consider the previous week's Academy Awards increased its audience by 58% over 2021.
Jon Batiste was the biggest winner at the Grammys on CBS, which featured performances by Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, BTS, Chris Stapleton, Justin Bieber and others.
"Don't even think of it as an awards show," host Trevor Noah said at one point. "Think of it as a concert where we're giving out awards."
On the sports front, the much-awaited NCAA Final Four contest between Duke and North Carolina reached a total of 16.25 million people Saturday night over several Turner cable networks, Nielsen said.
Sunday's NCAA championship game in women's basketball, won by South Carolina over Connecticut, was seen by 4.47 million people on ESPN.
CBS won the week in primetime, averaging 5.3 million viewers. ABC had 3.2 million, NBC had 2.4 million, Fox had 2.1 million, Univision had 1.5 million, Ion Television had 1 million and Telemundo had 920,000.
Fox News Channel was the most-watched cable network in primetime, averaging 2.5 million viewers. TBS had 1.99 million, ESPN had 1.67 million, TNT had 1.47 million and HGTV had 1.1 million.
ABC's "World News Tonight" won the evening news ratings race with an average of 8.4 million viewers. NBC's "Nightly News" had 7 million viewers and the "CBS Evening News" had 5 million.
For the week of March 28-April 3, the top 20 primetime programs, their networks and viewerships:
1. NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: Duke vs. North Carolina, TBS, 9.87 million.
2. "Grammy Awards" (8 to 10:53 p.m. Eastern), CBS, 9.59 million.
3. "Grammy Awards" (10:54 to 11:30 p.m.), CBS, 8.76 million.
4. "FBI," CBS, 7.58 million.
5. "NCAA Pregame Show," TBS, 7.24 million.
6. "Young Sheldon," CBS, 6.93 million.
7. "NCIS," CBS, 6.83 million.
8. "60 Minutes," CBS, 6.48 million.
9. NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament: Duke vs. North Carolina, Turner, 6.38 million.
10. "Ghosts," CBS, 6.23 million.
11. "FBI: International," CBS, 6.22 million.
12. "NCIS: Hawai'i," CBS, 6.13 million.
13. "FBI: Most Wanted," CBS, 5.84 million.
14. "Blue Bloods," CBS, 5.68 million.
15. "American Idol" (Monday), ABC, 5.66 million.
16. "Survivor," CBS, 5.63 million.
17. "The Neighborhood," CBS, 5.42 million.
18. "Bob Hearts Abishola," CBS, 5.13 million.
19. "United States of Al," CBS, 5.02 million.
20. "911," Fox, 4.97 million.
SMPTE elects board officers, regional governors
SMPTE®,the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has revealed the board officers and regional governors who will serve terms beginning in January 2025.
Three new officers--Richard Welsh as SMPTE president, Eric Gsell as SMPTE executive VP, and Polly Hickling as SMPTE Education VP--have been elected for a two-year term from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31, 2026. One SMPTE officer, Lisa Hobbs, will be continuing her service as SMPTE secretary and treasurer for another two-year term. Additionally, Raymond Yeung will be stepping into the role of standards VP on Jan. 1, 2025.
“SMPTE’s membership has spoken,” said SMPTE interim executive director Sally-Ann D’Amato. “These officers have been tasked with an important responsibility, one each of them is prepared to tackle head-on. These next two years are looking bright for SMPTE!”
In addition to the officers, 10 regional governors were elected by the Society to serve two-year 2025-2026 terms.
These include the following regional governors, re-elected to continue their service:
Asia-Pacific Region Governor
Tony Ngai, Society of Motion Imaging Ltd.
EMEA - Central & South America Region Governor
Fernando Bittencourt, FB Consultant
United Kingdom Region Governor
Chris Johns, Sky UK.
USA - Central Region Governor
William T. Hayes, Consultant
USA - Eastern Region Governor
Dover Jeanne Mundt, Riedel Communications
USA - Western Region Governor
Jeffrey F. Way, Open Drives
Also elected were four newcomers to the SMPTE Board:
Canada Region Governor
Jonathan Jobin, Grass Valley
USA - Hollywood Region Governor
Allan Schollnick, Voxx... Read More