UPDATED: Sunday’s Live Junos up 36 per cent over 2023 on CBC

The 2024 Juno Awards drew an average audience of 672,000 viewers ages two and up in live, overnight viewers Sunday night on CBC. That number includes data coupled with the live and encore broadcast that airs in Pacific and Mountain time zones.

That has the 53rd annual Canadian music industry salute climbing 36 per cent over the 2023 tally.

According to CBC Research, the awards were also streamed more than 170,000 times in Canada and around the world on CBC’s digital and streaming platforms including CBC Gem, more than doubling the number of streams from the 2023 JUNO Awards. On CBC Radio One and CBC Music, an additional 471,000 listeners were counted.

The two-hour showcase, live from Halifax, was by far CBC’s most-watched show of the night. Host Nelly Furtado opened the show with a medley of her hits. Maestro Fresh Wes, TALK, Josh Ross and group of the year The Beaches also performed and there were appearances from Elliot Page, Tegan and Sara and others.

The 2024 Junos far outperformed Big Brother Canada head-to-head from 8 to 10 p.m. the same night, with the Global competition series drawing a 2+ total in overnights of 395,000 viewers. Global bounced back on top from 9-10 p.m. with a simulcast of CSI Vegas at 596,000 in overnights. Over on Citytv, a simulcast of once mighty American Idol managed just 175,000 viewers with a two-hour audition episode.

CTV did soar past the Juno take in the first hour with a new episode of Tracker hunting down 890,000 viewers. A couple of weaker follow ups — a repeat of Celebrity Jeopardy! (230,000) and back-to-back repeats of, yes, Big Bang Theory at 10 p.m. (222,000/237,000) dropped well behind the Junos take.

The Woman’s International Curling final was the big draw earlier Sunday, with Canada’s victory over the Swiss sweeping up 900,000 TSN viewers that afternoon. The Toronto Maple Leafs pulled 571,000 on Sportsnet Ontario for an early evening game against Carolina.

In terms of demos, especially among the younger Canadian audience advertisers still covet, the Juno viewership was far less robust. Most viewers were over 55, with less than a quarter of ther 478,000 2+ total in the 25-54-year-old demo. The take among 18-34-year-olds was even more marginal, but that is the reality generally now among all broadcasters. CBC’s digital ratings and other Live+7 PVR data will likely push their total audience well past the half million mark.