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2023 CMT Awards Draws Highest Viewership In Show’s History, Breaks Digital Records

April 17, 2023/by Lorie Hollabaugh

Jelly Roll accepts the Male Video of the Year Award. Photo: Rick Kern/Getty Images for CMT

This year’s CMT Music Awards earlier this month drew the most viewership in the show’s history, with an audience of 5.43 million viewers, up 5% from last year.

The show also achieved triple-digit percentage increases (vs. Year-Over-Year) for social media views and engagements across CMT channels, to become CMT’s most social show ever.

Awards digital and social campaign highlights include a 211% increase year over year for total interactions and +46% growth for social viewers. CMT social accounts drove 171M total views (+75%, +73M YOY) and 11.6M engagements (+156%, +7.1M YOY), making this year’s awards show the most-viewed and engaged in history.

The three-hour event also garnered significant sales and stream increases for the artists and songs performed on the show. Comparing the week over week period April 2 through April 9 versus  March 26 through April 2, the average sales of songs performed saw an overall +134% sales spike and +9% streaming increase for songs performed. Sales and streaming highlights include:

Sales Increases (week over week)
Jelly Roll, “Need A Favor” +491%
Kelsea Ballerini, “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too)” +395%
Keith Urban, “Brown Eyes Baby” +239%
Blake Shelton, “Nobody” +179%
Kane Brown & Katelyn Brown, “Thank God” +98%

Streaming Increases (week over week)
Darius Rucker, “Fires Don’t Start Themselves” +143%~
Gwen Stefani (No Doubt), “Just a Girl” +63%
Tyler Hubbard, “Dancin’ In The Country” +38%
Jelly Roll, “Need A Favor” +37%
Kelsea Ballerini, “If You Go Down (I’m Goin’ Down Too)” +31%

~ performed as part of CMT Music Awards Extended Cut, which aired April 9 on CMT

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Lorie Hollabaugh
Lorie Hollabaugh
Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.
Lorie Hollabaugh
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