Thursday, May 21, 2026

American Music Awards Score Lowest Ratings Ever, Beaten by NFL, “Madame Secretary”

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The American Music Awards got what they deserved: their lowest ratings ever. They scored a miserable 2.4 in the key demo, which means no young people watched the show. But few people over all saw this debacle, as the total was 8.4 million people.

By comparison, “60 Minutes” had 15.81 million viewers. And their key demo was 3.1.

The AMAs made a mistake not putting older artists on earlier– Sting, Lady Gaga and John Legend were the best performers easily, but their audience may have tuned out before they came on.

The AMAs were beaten by the NFL, and also “Madame Secretary,” the guilty pleasure show for all thinking adults. (It reminds me of “Trapper John MD.”)

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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