Another year, another drop in ratings for the annual Country Music Association Awards... It's no secret that the CMA Awards, which are probably country music's most "prestigious" awards ceremony (I say that pretty loosely since most of the genre's best artists have never stepped foot inside the door), has been slipping over the years, but by how much? Well... a lot. In fact, awards shows in general have been tumbling for quite a few years, and there's a number of reasons as to why, but mostly, it's because they're pretty boring... This week's 58th Annual CMA Awards garnered just north of 6 million live viewers on ABC, not a massive drop from last year, but still a new all-time low. The broadcast still won the night, but only slightly edged out Chicago Fire at 5.72 million and Chicago Med at 5.86 million. And I say this as someone who lived in Chicago for 16 years, and regularly was inconvenienced by all of the different Chicago Fire-type shows filming near my Logan Square apartment (I lived across the street from a fire house for a few years), but nearly getting beat by a pretty "meh" show isn't exactly a great look. And just for reference, Chicago PD was garnering about 5 million back in 2017, SEAL Team was getting about 6 million in 2017, Empire with 5 and a half... all while the CMA Awards pulled in a whopping 14 million in 2017. So overall, live TV viewing has been declining, but nowhere near the rate at which the CMA Awards' ratings have been declining. Just look at this list from the past decade, beginning in 2014 and running through 2024: CMA Awards Yearly Viewers 2014: 16.1 million viewers 2015: 13.6 million viewers 2016: 12.8 million viewers 2017: 14.3 million viewers 2018: 10.1 million viewers 2019: 11.3 million viewers 2020: 7.1 million viewers 2021: 6.8 million viewers 2022: 7.6 million viewers 2023: 6.6 million viewers 2024: 6.1 million viewers Yikes.... aside from a few blips here and there, the graph isn't pretty: I mean, if that's a trend line in your stock portfolio, you're in rough shape. Like I said earlier, awards show ratings in general have been declining, but one could argue that country music has really only gotten better since 2015. "Bro country" really peaked in 2015 and was fairly prevalent through 2017 before morphing into a sappy version of itself dubbed "Boyfriend country." You can directly attribute the rise of Chris Stapleton in late 2015 (ironically enough from a CMA Awards performance with Justin Timberlake) as the start of the decline. But now, in part due to the age of streaming, country music fans do not have to largely rely on mainstream country radio to find new music... artists like Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan have become some of the biggest acts in all of music. Sturgill Simpson, Whiskey Myers, Koe Wetzel, Cody Jinks, Billy Strings and plenty others are selling out MASSSIVE venues. And even in the mainstream you have Luke Combs, Ashely McBryde, Lainey Wilson, Cody Johnson and Zach Top all making good country music. Hell, even Red Clay Strays were nominated for Group of the Year (insane the Old Dominion keeps winning that) so that's a step in the right direction. But if country music, both mainstream and outside of it, keeps getting better and better and better, and exposure to these great artists keeps getting wider and wider... why are awards shows getting worse and worse? Was there a single memorable moment from Wednesday night? One that we'll look back on? Nope... none. Hell, your Entertainer of the Year, Morgan Wallen, didn't even show up. The Strait tribute was pretty great, Ashley's Kristofferson tribute was beautiful, and Dierks doing a little bluegrass showcase was cool too, but nobody will be talking about it in a few years (or even a few weeks). The Toby Keith toast was ridiculous, the performances mostly feel safe and vanilla, and then you sprinkle in these actors and celebrities that have nothing to do with country music because... why? No shade to Freddie Freeman or Simone Biles, but Simone looked miserable there. Then you have Teddy Swims (good singer) show up for a duet, Noah Kahan (who's great, but not country) show up for a duet, two Jelly Roll performances (no shade to him, but one is fine) and then Shaboozey comes out to sing his viral one-hit wonder... it all feels jut so disconnected from the lifeblood of the genre. It all feels like a shallow, corporate, politically correct, boring, costume party rather than a celebration of this great thing called country music. And to be honest, I don't even know how to fix it... it seems too far gone without a total dismantling of the powers that be. But for starters, get some real country music on the stage, get rid of the celebrities who don't add an ounce of viewership, bring back the In Memorium segment, pay tribute to the country music icons in meaningful ways and let's focus on making some truly memorable performances... captivating, moving, face-melting... I mean, Chris Stapleton can absolutely rip with that voice... let's hear it on the national stage. Get Zach Top, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, and Vince Gill up there and let them shred. Put on a SHOW! And get new writers for the hosts... good Lord, it's bad. I've been blogging about country music for 10 years now and the genre has never felt stronger. The amount of good music out there is overwhelming, and the mainstream is the best it's been in a while. And yet, the CMA Awards just continue to fail to capture that. Just imagine Tyler Childers performing "Way Of The Triune God" at the CMA Awards.... COME ON WITH IT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dONVNKR8yeM&pp=ygUTVHlsZXIgY2hpZGxlcnMgbGl2ZQ%3D%3D