The MTV VMAs are making a bit of a comeback. After struggling with viewership over the past two years (like many award shows), the Sunday night broadcast saw a 3% increase in viewership.
The awards show drew a total of 3.9 million linear viewers, up from the 3.7 million who tuned in to last year’s telecast. However, this year’s show didn’t move the needle much among the advertiser-friendly 18-49 demographic, with ratings roughly the same as 2021 (around 2.8 in raw ratings).
MTV’s PR and research teams also combine Nielsen’s linear numbers for the VMAs with their own internal digital data in a proprietary metric called “Total Minutes Used” (TMC). For the 2022 VMAs, they say that number hit 1.59 billion, which is a 14% increase from the previous broadcast.
Sunday’s show aired on MTV, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV2, Nickelodeon, CW, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land and VH1.
According to MTV, the show was a hit on social media, where it generated more than 40 million interactions, beating the Super Bowl and the Oscars. It marked the “most social” VMAs of all time, with a 6% increase in interactions.
Last night’s winners included Lil Nas X for his video collaboration with Jack Harlow on “Industry Baby” and Taylor Swift for Video of the Year (she also announced a new album in her acceptance speech). Nicki Minaj, who received the Video Vanguard award, also picked up a statuette for Best Hip Hop for “Do We Have A Problem?” with young money. You can find a full list of those who took home a trophy here.
