Grammy Awards viewership falls to record low in 2021
15 March 2021
Just 8.8 million people tuned into the Grammy Awards on CBS this year, a new all-time low for the music awards show, according to near-final Nielsen ratings.
Why it matters: In a sign of how much the pandemic has sped upratings declines for award shows, the Grammy's ratings were still the highest for any major award show in the past year.
- The Golden Globes were viewed by just 6.9 million people this year, a record low. Viewership of the Emmys last September dropped 11% year-over-year to just 6.1 million viewers, another record low.
- Prior to Sunday, 2006 was the lowest-rated Grammy Awards with 17 million viewers.
Be smart: The Grammy Awards were already struggling prior to the pandemic. Last January, the show hit a new low in the key 18-49 advertising demographic. The 2020 Grammy Awards had low ratings as well with only 18.7 million viewers.
Details: Despite the ratings slide, the show was lauded by critics as intimate and unique.
- A wide range of artists from Taylor Swift to Cardi B and Lionel Richie took the stage to perform inside, while awards were presented to celebrities at socially-distanced tables outside of the theater.
- Women like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Megan Thee Stallion swept the top awards categories.
- What's next: Final viewership numbers for the event will be available in the next day or so but they are unlikely to boost the viewership count substantially. The next major award show is the Academy Awards in late April.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.