This post has been updated with final numbers: The best and the brightest of country music gathered Wednesday for the 2021 Country Music Association Awards, hosted by Luke Bryan. The ceremony, which honored Luke Combs, Carly Pearce and more, earned a 1.1. rating in the 18-49 demographic and 6.56 million viewers, per Nielsen fast affiliates, topping all of primetime. The CMA numbers were steady compared with last year’s ceremony (1.1, 6.82M). In final numbers the CMA Awards brought in 6.9 million viewers, up in audience from 2020.
It’s worth noting that the 2020 CMA Awards were down sharply from the pre-pandemic ceremony in 2019 (2.0, 11.27M).
The CMA festivities may have topped primetime, but just by a slim margin above CBS’ Survivor and Fox’s The Masked Singer, which both earned a 0.9 demo rating. NBC’s Chicago Fire drew in 6.41 million viewers.
Survivor (0.9, 5.36M) and The Masked Singer (0.9, 3.82M) stayed steady from their tie last week. Also staying stable in the 9 p.m. hour were Chicago Med (0.7, 6.25M) and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (0.1, 0.51M).
Chicago Fire (0.6, 6.41M), meanwhile, was down from the previous wee to touch season lows. Similarly, Chicago P.D. (0.6, 5.41M) dropped to season lows in both rating and viewership.
Also seeing lows was Fox’s Alter Ego (0.4, 1.73M), which continues to drop in viewership.