Add the BET Awards to the list of awards telecasts that improved their ratings after bottoming out in recent years.
Sunday’s show — which was simulcast across 10 ViacomCBS cable outlets, including BET — averaged 3.2 million viewers. That’s a 34 percent gain over the 2021 show, which came in at an all-time low of 2.4 million across seven channels. BET accounted for about 64 percent of the total with 2.06 million viewers, up 23 percent from 1.67 million a year ago.
BET also scored double-digit gains among adults 18-49 for the awards, rising from a 0.57 rating in 2021 to a 0.68 on Sunday — a boost of 19 percent.
Taraji P. Henson hosted the awards, which honored Sean “Diddy” Combs with a lifetime achievement award and saluted the best in music and movies from the past year.
The ratings growth for Sunday’s show mirrors that of other awards shows in the 2021-22 season. After several years of declines and a string of all-time lows across numerous awards broadcasts in prior years, the category has reclaimed some of the audience it lost.
ABC’s Oscars telecast in March grew by 60 percent from last year’s pandemic-altered ceremony. Other shows had more modest bumps, but the Grammy Awards, the Emmys, SAG Awards and American Music Awards all posted total viewer gains this season.
