Why The Grammy Show Stinks

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I didn't watch the Grammy show, save for the tribute to Glenn Frey. However, from the buzz I've read online and the news reports, this may well have been the worst awards show (not just music, not just Grammys) in history. I need to emphasize something. If you take nothing else from this discussion, please remember this: The Grammy show IS NOT ABOUT THE AWARDS. It's about ratings. Let me explain: in December nominations were announced for the Grammy awards in 83 different categories. Yesterday afternoon, about three hours before the broadcast began, the Grammys were awarded in 75 of those categories. The telecast was three and a half hours long, and in that timeframe a whopping EIGHT awards were handed out on TV for all to see. What does that tell you? If this show were truly about music then you would have seen Jason Isbell (who won two Americana/Roots Grammys), the Fairfield Four (Roots Gospel winner), the Steeldrivers (Bluegrass Grammy winners), and Béla Fleck (Folk Grammy winner)...even if you've never heard of these acts. Instead, the Grammy show overloads the line-up with "popular" acts in order to pull in ratings. The show is a ratings anchor for CBS. They're paying big bucks to NARAS (the governing body of the Grammys) to carry the awards. As such, they expect return for their dollars. The show airs in the prestigious February ratings sweep month (when the ratings in the month determine how well a network is doing and, subsequently, how much money they can charge for advertising). To prove they're about the ratings, consider that the Grammys normally air on Sunday night. This year, however, they aired on Monday because Sunday fell on Valentine's Day. Assuming that most people would be out with their sweethearts at dinner and not watching the show, the telecast was moved to Monday. And that is why the Grammy show stinks. They try to trick the viewers into believing it's "music's biggest night," but it isn't. It's not even close. It's a ratings dog-and-pony show. And, given that the average American spends $17 a year on music, most viewers are none the wiser. If they were, they'd be demanding to see more music.