The 66th annual Grammy Awards took a fast car towards ratings success on Sunday, bringing in an average 16.9 million viewers with a show that featured several high-profile performances and surprises.
This marks a 34% improvement from last year’s show, which reached 12.4 million viewers on average, and the most-watched Grammys ceremony since 2020. (These numbers are calculated from both Nielsen’s measurement of linear views on CBS and Paramount Global’s own data regarding streams on Paramount+, CBS and the CBS app.)
Additionally, Paramount+ saw its highest Grammys viewership ever with 173% more streams than in 2023.
With 18.3 million viewers, the most-watched quarter-hour of the show began at 9:45 p.m., during which Stevie Wonder, Annie Lennox, Jon Batiste and Fantasia Barrino led the In Memoriam segment.
Other highlights of Sunday’s show included Tracy Chapman’s first public appearance in years, joined by Luke Combs to sing her hit song “Fast Car”; Joni Mitchell’s first-ever performance at the Grammys; Celine Dion surprising the crowd by presenting the album of the year award over a year after revealing her Stiff Person Syndrome diagnosis; and Taylor Swift announcing her upcoming album “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Trevor Noah hosted the Grammys for the fourth year in a row. Fulwell 73 produced the show for the Recording Academy. Ben Winston served as executive producer alongside Raj Kapoor and Jesse Collins.
NBCUniversal also scored some wins on Sunday: “E! Grammys Live From the Red Carpet” had its biggest telecast since 2017 with 1.5 million viewers. Pre-show “Live from E! Countdown to the Grammys” and post-show “Live from E!: Grammys After Party” hit their highest audiences since 2020.
