The VMA’s dropped about half of their audience from last year’s record 12.4 million audience. 6.1 viewers tuned in to the broadcast. The VMA’s drew a 5.3 rating in the network’s target 12-34 demo.
There are a few good reasons why the numbers are down this year. The VMA’s usually broadcast on a Sunday. The move to Thursday put it in contention with President Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. With only 2 days notice, MTV announced that the show would move up one hour to 8 pm, instead of it’s usual (and cooler) 9 pm starting time, in order to avoid a conflict.
Year to year, the VMAs were down more than 50 percent in total viewers.
Prior to this year’s broadcast, the VMAs had been rising every year, jumping to its largest audience in a decade in 2010.
I expect MTV will move the ceremony back to Sundays for 2013.
