Not even zombies could take a bite out of City’s broadcast of the 57th annual Grammy Awards Sunday.
An average audience of 2.64 million people – a record high for the Rogers-owned network – watched Sunday’s telecast according to preliminary ratings from Numeris, making it the night’s most-watched program.
The audience peaked at 3.68 million viewers during Madonna’s performance of her new single “Living for Love.” In total, an estimated 8 million people watched all or some of the telecast.
Competition for the telecast was significant, including both the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead and the much-anticipated debut of the Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul.
The audience for Sunday’s telecast was 2.9% greater than that of the 2014 Grammy’s, which attracted an average audience of 2.54 million people. Rogers announced Monday it has extended its current rights deal for another two years, making it the official Canadian home of the Grammy’s through 2018.
The deal includes both the awards ceremony and “The Grammy Nomination Concert Live” event, as well as the right to live stream both the pre-show and the awards broadcast.
City’s multi-platform red carpet special, Entertainment City: Live at the Grammy’s, attracted an average minute audience of 648,000, a 47.4% increase over last year. In a Canadian first, City also produced an exclusive 90-minute second-screen broadcast streamed on Citytv.com/Grammy.
