Grammy Awards Ratings Fall To Lowest Results Since 2009 – Update

2ND UPDATE, 10:31 AM: The numbers went down and then they went down even more. With specially ordered ratings now in from CBS, last night's Grammy Awards took a double-digit blow in the key demo compared with last year's ceremony. Among adults 18-49, the show, which ran from 8-11:39 PM, was down 14% to an 8.5 rating, and down 11% in viewers with 25.3 million. Both numbers were the lowest results in six years — the 2009 Grammys pulled a 7.4/18 rating and had 19.05 million total viewers. The dip may be in part due to the bite of the competing midseason return of AMC's The Walking Dead last night.

UPDATE,  8:50 AM: With performances from Kristen Wiig lip syncing and dancing along with Sia onstage, Madonna, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett plus Paul McCartney, Kayne West and Rihanna together, among others, the 57 ^th annual Grammy Awards packed in a lot of action last night – and gave out some awards too. However, it looks to have taken a hit from 2014. In fast nationals, the show on CBS got an 8.8/23 among adults 18-49 with 26.2 million viewers in primetime results. In early numbers that's a 11% drop from last year in the demo and the worst the Grammys has done among the 18-49s since 2009. In total viewership, last night's Grammys slipped 8% from the 2014 ceremony.

As with all live events, such as awards shows and sports, there could be an adjustment for the Grammys later today – especially being that the last 45 minutes of the show are not counted in current primetime results. CBS says that they've ordered preliminary results for the full three hours and 45 minute Grammy and we should get those sometime later this morning.

A new 60 Minutes (1.5/5) at 7 PM delivered a 36% rise from its last original on January 25 for CBS as a Grammy lead-in. Overall CBS unsurprisingly won the night among the demo and total viewers with a 7.0/19 rating and 22.098 million viewers. Ratingswise, that's triple what the other three members of the Big 4 got put together.

With the exception of an original America's Funniest Home Videos (1.4/4) at 7 PM on ABC, it was all encores and a broadcast of 2012's The Hunger Games on the Disney-owned network and NBC last night. Of course, the real potential Grammy competition was over on AMC with the midseason return of The Walking Dead. On ABC, the vet video show was down 18% from its last original on January 25.

Like previous recent Grammy nights, Fox put up a near full slate on Sunday. The night started with the near to last Mulaney (0.5/2), which was up 25% from its last new show two weeks ago.. After a Simpsons repeat, an original The Simpsons (1.2/3) was down 14% from its last original on January 25. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (1.2/3) was even with its results of two weeks ago while Family Guy (1.4/3) was down 13% and Bob's Burgers (1.0/2) fell 17% from their last originals on January 25.

PREVIOUS, 7 AM: Kicking off with a two-song performance from AC/DC, CBS' broadcast of Music's biggest night saw big wins for Beck, Sam Smith, Eminem and Pharrell Williams last night. In an homage to Black History Month and the upcoming Oscars, the 57 ^th annual Grammy Awards also closed with a duo of songs from the Selma soundtrack with Beyonce singing "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," which was originally sung by Ledisi in the movie. After that, Common and John Legend performed their Academy Award nominated song "Glory."

In early ratings, things were pretty steady with last year as last night's more than three-and-a-half hour Grammy telecast drew a 16.7/26 in metered market results. That's down just 6% from the 17.7/28 that the 2014 Grammys pulled in on January 26 that year – both shows ran until 11:45 PM ET. For further context, the 2013 Grammy Awards drew a 19.1/27 in MM results. The peak for last night's Grammy Awards was a 18.6/27 that occurred in the 8:30 PM half hour.

Unlike last year, this year's LL Cool J-hosted Grammys had an appearance by Prince and didn't have to face the NFL Pro Bowl on NBC. However, the show did have to face the midseason return of The Walking Dead in the 9 PM hour on AMC as well as the debut of the Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul right afterward. That face-off with the usually highly-rated zombie apocalypse series could impact on fast nationals ratings for the awards show – both in total viewership and among adults 18-49. As things stand among the Big 4 right now, CBS got a 14.9/23 in Sunday primetime in overnight results. That's more than double what its broadcast network competition pulled in put together.

For comparison while we await more results, last year's Grammys ended up with 28.51 million total viewers and a 9.9/25 rating among the key demo . That was basically steady with the 2013 Grammys but down from the mega-numbers that the 2012 Grammys had with 40 million viewers and a 14.1 rating among the demo. The February 12, 2012 telecast of the Grammys came one day after the death of Whitney Houston and featured a tribute to the singer from Jennifer Hudson.

We'll update with more Grammy results and other ratings later as we get them.