The 2020 BBMA’s Met the Same Fate as Many Other COVID-19 Era Award Shows

If you watched all of the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, congratulations. You are amongst the fifty percent of the event’s expected viewers to actually stick it out all the way through. As with the Emmy’s and MTV Video Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards met the same fate as other COVID-19 era award shows. TV ratings experienced steep declines and even experienced all time lows, with only 3.71 million viewers (down more than half of the 2019 show with 8 million viewers).

Despite the highly anticipated performances and nominees (which you can view in our overview of the BBMA’s), the show fell short of the experience that many viewers know and love. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing regulations, the show lacked an audience. In its place, Kelly Clarkson showed off her specially programmed remote device, a controller with sound automated buttons that mimicked audience cheers, claps, and even “boos”. If you were an avid iCarly fan growing up, it is exactly like Sam’s remote from the show. 

However, the remote failed to capture the magic that is seeing performances in front of a live audience, as there was no engagement with the artists. Even with the awardings, it was a very bizarre experience, seeing a completely empty Dolby theatre, yet the sound of overwhelming audience applause played throughout the show. 

What can be said about the 2020 BBMA’s, is that it served as a reflection of the times and of future award shows in the coming months. Masks were visible all throughout the event. Billie Eilish took the stage to accept her awards in a mask, and in her speech, encouraged everyone at home to do the same. Masks were also seen in Alicia Keys’ performance on her background dancers and band members; on Doja Cat’s background dancers; and on the band members of En Vogue’s closing number. Some performances decided to do without background acts as a whole. Kelly Clarkson, Pentatonix and Sheila E’s opening performance was in front of a virtual band projected on a large screen, and BTS’ performance of Dynamite had the same idea. 

Overall, the lack of viewers for these award shows can be chalked up to the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused people to lose interest due to the lack of audience engagement. We can only hope that next year, things will return to something close to normal, and we can once again see our favorite artists perform in front of their fans live and in person.