As expected, the Grammy Awards took a steep fall from the huge audience it attracted last year, when it aired just a day after the death of Whitney Houston. But the broadcast still managed to draw a total of 28.37 million viewers, the second-best Grammy performance since 1993.
While Sunday night’s show fell short of last year’s total of 39.91 million, it was up by almost two million from the year prior. The 2011 awards averaged 26.67 million viewers.
The story was the same in the audience group most important to advertisers: down from last year but still better than most recent years.
The 10.1 rating among viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 dropped from a huge 14.1 last year. But that 10.1 rating beat every other Grammy telecast since 2004. Two years ago, the show scored an even 10 rating in that group.
