Eminem opened the 2024 VMAs on Wednesday (Sept. 11) with his recent hit “Houdini.” As it turns out, the show delivered a pretty neat magic trick of its own. In an era of flat, or even declining, ratings for awards shows, the VMAs delivered their biggest audience in four years, with more than 4 million viewers.
MTV reports that combined ratings for the premiere and encore showings were up 8% compared to a year ago (4.09 million vs. 3.78 million). Ratings for the premiere simulcast at 8 p.m. ET/PT were up 25% compared to a year ago (3.11 million vs. 2.49 million).
That premiere broadcast was simulcast across 13 networks in the U.S., the same number as last year – BET, BET Her, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV, MTV2, Nick at Nite, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land, VH1 and Univision. That means that the casual music fan who may have been channel-surfing came across the show multiple times. That sheer repetition may have stirred their interest and made it seem like this was an event.
The black-carpet pre-show at 6:30 p.m. aired on four networks. The first encore at 11:18 p.m. (the show ran over, as awards shows tend to do) aired on 10 networks. (Two other networks started their first encore showings within that hour.) The second encore at 2:34 a.m. aired on four networks.
MTV reports that the 2024 VMAs were the No. 1 most social entertainment telecast in history, with 66.7 million interactions. The only program that beat it was the second presidential debate of the 2024 campaign season, which aired the previous night, between VP Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
The show rang up 829 million video views (an 18% increase over last year) and 76.3 million engagements (a 25% increase over last year) across global owned accounts.
VMAs trended No. 1 worldwide on X (formerly Twitter) for 10 hours. Media impressions were up 8% — 107.5 billion impressions this year vs. 99.5 billion impressions last year.
The 2024 VMAs had an impressive artist lineup, including host/performer Megan Thee Stallion and such other red-hot artists as Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Benson Boone. Taylor Swift didn’t perform, but she was in the audience (or onstage accepting awards) from start to finish. It seems fair to say that artists support the VMAs at this point more than MTV supports music videos, other than on this one night a year. Maybe, given these healthy ratings for their flagship program, the channel can address putting music videos back into its programming mix.
