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Audience For ESPYs Above Recent Tony Awards, Miss America, But Below CMAs, VMAs

ABC finished with 7.75 million viewers for the ESPYs on Wednesday night, giving the net a win among all networks in primetime for the event's broadcast TV debut. ESPN has aired the show since its inception in '93, drawing 2.21 million viewers last year and 2.27 million viewers in '13. ESPN's best audience for the event was 3.62 million viewers when the telecast aired on tape delay on a Sunday night in '06. Wednesday night's audience peaked late in the show as Caitlyn Jenner accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award, with the TV audience also growing by 1.9 million viewers from its first hour to its last hour. While the ESPYs are not yet close to the audience size of awards shows like the Oscars, Emmys or Grammys, its audience did top some well-known events. The 7.75 million viewers topped the most recent editions of the Tony Awards (CBS), Miss America (ABC) and BET Awards. However, it still falls just short of the audience for events like the American Music Awards (ABC), Country Music Awards (ABC) and MTV Video Music Awards. K.C. and Atlanta led all markets for ABC's telecast on Wednesday night with an 8.4 local rating, followed by Philadelphia (8.1), Chicago (7.8) and Boston (7.6).

VIEWERSHIP FOR SELECT AWARDS SHOWS
SHOW
DATE
NIGHT
NETWORK
VIEWERS (000)
Country Music Awards
11/5/14
Wed.
ABC
16,249
American Music Awards
11/23/14
Sun.
ABC
11,610
Video Music Awards
8/24/14
Sun.
MTV
8,257
ESPYs
7/15/15
Wed.
ABC
7,746
Miss America
9/14/14
Sun.
ABC
7,073
Tony Awards
6/7/15
Sun.
CBS
6,461
BET Awards
6/28/15
Sun.
BET
6,268

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