Grammys Outpace Oscars As Awards Show With Most Social Impact

The Grammy Awards are the most social awards show, according to Nielsen’s recent Social Content Ratings study. The study monitored social media activity (including retweets, shares, likes and comments) for each awards show that aired between Aug. 1, 2018 and Feb. 24, 2019.

The 61st Annual Grammy Awards (CBS), which aired on Feb. 10, 2019, won the study with 26.2 million social interactions.

The Grammys outpaced the No. 2 most social awards show, ABC’s The Oscars, which aired Feb. 24, 2019 and earned 17.7 million interactions. Rounding out the Top 5 awards shows that bring the most social media impact are the 2018 MTV Music Awards (12.2 million), NBC’s Golden Globe Awards (8.6 million) and Univision’s Premio Lo Nuestro 2019 (6.7 million).

Of note, Six of the top 10 awards shows with the most social media impact were music-related shows.

The study also offered examples of specific awards show moments that contributed to each show’s overall ranking. Cardi B’s animated Instagram shout out after winning her Grammy sparked 1.6 million engagements in the linear window—which is more social engagements than some shows generate across all of their official accounts combined. By comparison, the most social Oscars-related post came from talent Angela Bassett, including an image of her in formal attire beside Courtney B. Vance, with over 515,000 engagements on Instagram.

Grammys host and performer Alicia Keys spiked on social media when she played across two pianos at once in her tribute to pianist Hazel Scott. This was the most social moment of the night, inciting close to 80,000 interactions on Twitter. Immediately before the tribute, Keys posted a video to social media encouraging audiences to tune in to the performance and garnered over 116,000 owned engagements. In the minutes following the post and during the performance, viewership toward the Grammys even saw some lift, with overall ratings experiencing upward of a 10 percent increase compared to the telecast’s average rating.

The report also states, “Discussions around award shows in particular are thriving on social media feeds, allowing fans, celebrities and businesses to gush about the winners, gaffes and viral moments that only live TV specials can provide. Not to mention, viewers can do this all in real-time, on platforms that encourage high-volume engagement that has the entire internet in on the conversation.”