The Broadcast Critics Choice Awards draw record viewership for the in-person ceremony

The Critics Choice Awards aired without much fanfare on Sunday night. The CW telecast of the 28th annual celebration drew 900,000 viewers, according to initial figures from Nielsen.

That’s down slightly from last year, when the ceremony, which aired simulcast on The CW and TBS, took home 1.1 million viewers. TBS didn’t tie the ceremony this year, so this year’s viewership is technically greater than the CW’s share a year ago, but the overall audience fell to an all-time low for an in-person ceremony. (The 2021 virtual edition of the Critics Choice Awards drew just 365,000 total viewers.)

The slump in viewers this year matches any other show that has lost viewers in recent years. On Tuesday, the Golden Globes’ NBC broadcast drew its lowest ratings ever for the ceremony.

During the three-hour broadcast of Critics Choice on A24 Everything, everywhere, all at once won Best Film, Brendan Fraser won Best Actor for A24s The whaleand Cate Blanchett won Best Actress for Focus Features. tar. Check out the full list of winners here.

The night’s ratings winner was NBC’s coverage of the AFC Wild Card game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens. The game attracted approximately 21.2 million viewers and received a 5.6 rating among advertisers aged 18-49.

Although it falls just a hair’s breadth short of the comparable Steelers vs. Chiefs last year, professional football remains virtually the only thing that can draw big numbers for any broadcast network.

Ratings are down across the board, but the NFL’s regular season this year brought in some record numbers for the networks. NBC’s Sunday night footballThe network was up 3% from last season and had its best ratings since 2019, averaging 19.9 million viewers over the 18-week season.

Other Sunday night primetime fare included the CBS series of East New York with 5.1 million viewers and NCIS: Los Angeles with 4.5 million