The American Music Awards are likely to take a one-year sabbatical, Variety has learned.
Following news announcing that the Billboard Music Awards would move the date to Nov. 19, 2023, typically a Sunday held for the AMAs, it would seem to leave parent company Dick Clark Productions no choice but to bump the AMAs to 2024, when it can take the May slot previously held by Billboard.
Multiple sources say that neither has secured a broadcast partner and producer Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Corp. (parent company of Variety and Billboard) had to make the decision of which show to throw its weight behind. Since PMC owns the publication Billboard, insiders suggest that the thinking was to promote its own brand. Chatter among music industry professionals is that the AMAs, which launched in 1973, was becoming stale.
However, a spokeswoman for PMC asserted that discussions are ongoing for both awards telecasts. “We have offers on both shows from networks and streamers,” a PMC spokeswoman said.
ABC, which has partnered with the American Music Awards for some time, was unaware of the BBMAs change until it was announced publicly on March 15. A source close to the situation tells Variety that no decisions have been made about a contract renewal for the AMAs.
As for the BBMAs, sources also confirm that NBC, which has aired that show since 2018, did not pick it up this year. Instead, NBC is focused on expanding its People’s Choice Awards franchise in the fall, including the new People’s Choice Country Awards coming in September.
The ratings for the AMAs have been steadily declining in recent years, with the show reaching a low in 2022 with a 0.6 rating among adults in the key 18-49 demographic and just 3.53 million total viewers. In the two years prior, the show had been even, garnering a 1.0 rating and 4 million viewers in both 2021 and 2020.
The AMAs were created by Dick Clark for ABC after the broadcaster lost the Grammys broadcast rights to CBS. By the mid 1980s, the AMAs had become a powerful competitor to the Grammys — even attracting more viewers on some years, particularly during the height of Michael Jackson’s popularity in the early part of that decade. The AMAs originally ran in winter — either January or February — from 1974 to 2003. In 2003, it also ran a second show in November, where it has aired since (until this year).
As for the Billboard Music Awards, the kudocast launched on Fox in 1990, where it remained through 2006 and always aired in early December. The awards show then went dark for several years, until it was revived for ABC in 2011 and placed in a new May slot — presumably to avoid conflict with the AMAs. It remained on ABC through 2017, but the show moved to rival broadcaster NBC in 2018. It has aired on that network through 2022, usually occupying that Sunday in May slot.
The BBMAs have done slightly better at retaining their ratings over the past few years, getting a 0.7 rating in both 2021 and 2022 and drawing an average of 2.8 million total viewers in 2021 and 2.6 million in 2022.
Of course, awards shows have to be licensed to broadcast — and these days, sometimes streaming — partners, or they don’t get ratings at all. So without a network definitively lined up to take on the AMAs next year — or the BBMAs, this year, for that matter — the actual effect of this shuffle will need some time to take shape.
ABC declined to comment Friday.
(Jennifer Maas contributed to this report.)
