2026 Grammys Dip 6.4% From Last Year With 14.4 Million Viewers
The 2026 Grammys scored a solid audience as they aired live on Sunday, but still saw a slight 6.4% drop in viewership when compared to last year’s awards.
The awards ceremony, which aired from Los Angeles’ Crypto.com arena beginning at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET, brought in 14.41 million viewers across CBS and Paramount+, according to Nielsen big data plus panel live-plus-same-day figures. The 2026 event also marks the last one airing on CBS before moving to Disney in a new 10-year streaming and broadcasting deal.
Viewership for Sunday’s show was down 6.43% from last year, which scored 15.4 million viewers. It’s also down from the 16.9 million viewers brought in by 2024, which marked the biggest audience the awards show has seen since 2020.
Still, the Grammys scored a big enough audience to become the most-watched awards show since the Oscars in March 2025, surpassing the Golden Globes, which scored 8.66 million viewers, the Emmys, which earned 7.42 million viewers, and the VMAs, which scored 5.5 million viewers.
The awards ceremony was also the most-watched program on Sunday night, and was also the week’s top primetime broadcast.
The 2026 Grammys also ranked as the No. 1 most social program on TV, including sports, of the past six months as it earned 74.8M total interactions and 302.5 million total video views, per Social Content Ratings.
Sunday’s ceremony saw major wins for Bad Bunny, who became the first Spanish-language artist to win album of the year, as well as Kendrick Lamar, whose Grammy wins for record of the year and best rap album for “GNX” pushed him to became the most-awarded hip-hop artist in history. The night also saw wins for Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Olivia Dean and Lola Young, among others.
The 2026 Grammys was indelibly touched by resistance and protest of ICE, with countless artists wearing “ICE OUT” pins alongside their red carpet looks while many addressed the topic in their acceptance speeches, including Bad Bunny, Dean, Eilish and SZA.
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