Primetime Ratings: 25 Million Watch Grammys

CBS won the ratings race on the strength of the Grammy Awards, posting a 7.7 rating in adults 18-49, per Nielsen's time-adjusted fast affiliate ratings, with a 22 share. Fox was a distant runner-up at 1.8/5, according to the overnights, then ABC at 1.7/5, NBC at 0.9/3 and The CW at 0.2/1.

Just shy of 25 million--24.95 million, in fact--tuned in to the 58th annual Grammys, hosted by LL Cool J, with performances from Kendrick Lamar and Adele, among many other stars. The 7.7 average is off 9% from last year’s telecast, which was down 14% from the previous year.

Even with the decrease, the competition lost significant share against the live Grammys.

Fox had The X-Files at 2.1, down 16% from last week, and Lucifer at 1.6, down 6%.

ABC’s The Bachelor was down 8% to 2.2, and Castle slipped 18% to 0.9.

On NBC, Superstore was down 14% to a 1.2 and Telenovela was off 22% to 0.7. Two hours of The Biggest Loser rated a 0.9, down 18%.

The CW had Mortal Kombat X: Machinima’s Chasing the Cup at 0.3 and a repeat of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.