Early Ratings For “CMA Music Festival” TV Special

Carrie Underwood performs at the 2012 CMA Music Festival. Photo: CMA

Last night’s (9/17) CMA Music Festival television special was a showcase of country’s hottest talent. Unfortunately, the ratings were a little cooler than last year, but landed almost on par with the 2010 installment. Hosted by Luke Bryan and Kimberly Perry, the 2012 show averaged 6.2 million viewers, sliding ABC into third place among the major networks, according to preliminary data from Zap2It.

The country extravaganza was stacked against mega hit The Voice, which led into the series premiere of the much-hyped drama Revolution. These programs secured the night for NBC with an average of 12.8 million viewers.

In the 8 PM/ET hour CMA Music Festival drew 6.6 million, dropped to 6.1 million at 9 PM, and then to 5.96 million at 10 PM.

TV ratings aren’t the only indicator of a successful broadcast, next week’s Soundscan report could reflect a post-show glow.

In 2011, the festival special aired Aug. 14, a month earlier and on a Sunday night. That drew an average audience of 7 million viewers. It came in second place most of the night, and moved into first place during the final hour.

In 2010 the show lunged into third place on Wed., Sept. 1 with about 6 million viewers.

The 2009 installment on Mon., Aug. 31 won the night with 7.8 million viewers, but ran against repeats across the board.