“American Idol” isn’t much of a powerhouse anymore but it’s still strong enough to knock off the Billboard Music Awards.
The “Idol” finale scored 5.4 million viewers, more than twice as many fans as the BBMAs on Sunday night.
The two shows ran against each for the whole night on their respective networks. “Idol” was on ABC, “BBMA” was on NBC.
“Idol” featured not only the big season ending competition but also big star performers like Chaka Khan and Sheryl Crow. Their performances were top notch, too.
The Awards recycled the same stuff from the Grammy Awards and before that the American Music Awards. The audience wasn’t interested. Billboard Music Awards was down to 2.333 million viewers, off by 36% from last year’s 3.6 million. That’s a new all time low after a previous all time low.
Even BTS couldn’t save the Awards, presenting their new hit, “Butter.” Alicia Keys shined of course with a medley of greatest hits, but otherwise the music was mostly deadening. There was no country performer, which was a BIG Mistake. But the show had “banned” Morgan Wallen and still gave him three big awards off camera. Ridiculous.
If these Awards had been on the CW Network, it would have been fine. But this was one of the big three networks.
CBS won the night easily with “60 Minutes,” “The Equalizer,” “NCIS Los Angeles” and the series finale of “NCIS New Orleans.”