Last week we showed how ratings for the Canadian Screen Awards were trending down, at least in overnight estimates, in English Canada. Viewers who might PVR live event programming such as sports or award shows still generally catch up with it the same night so let’s just say trending down period.
The CSA’s have shed more than half their audience, for example, since they replaced both the Geminis and the Genies as Canada’s twin salute to film and television in 2013. That year, host Martin Short performed before 770,000 overnight, estimated, 2+ viewers. Last month, in a hostless broadcast, the tally was down to 335,000.
Overnight, estimated “live” viewing, however, has been dropping steadily, sometimes at a double digit annual rate, for everything in broadcast television just about every year this decade. How then has Canada’s annual music industry salute, the Junos, weathered the decline?
The major variable in this comparison is that there are two networks involved, CTV and CBC. Who is hosting the show also seems to have an impact, as does how hot Canada’s music industry nominees were in any given year. The Junos also travel to a different Canadian city on an annual basis. The numbers:
- 2010: CTV 1,851,000 various hosts
- 2011: CTV 2,637,000 Drake
- 2012: CTV 1,760,000 William Shatner
- 2013: CTV 2,330,000 Michael Buble
- 2014: CTV 1,729,000 Classified, Johnny Reid, Serena Ryder
- 2015: CTV 1,815,000 Jacob Hoggard; Headley
- 2016: CTV 1,872,000 Jann Arden, Jon Montgomery
- 2017 CTV 1,699,000 Bryan Adams, Russell Peters
- 2018: CBC 1,323,000 Michael Buble
- 2019: CBC 1,113,000 Sarah MacLachlan
Again, even comparing back again to 2013, the Junos has lost half its audience in overnights. The solution: have Drake host in 2020?
